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In this book, Maor rejects the usual arid descriptions of the sine and cosine functions and their trigonometric relatives. He brings the subject to life in a compelling blend of mathematics, history, and biography. From the ‘proto-trigonometry’ of the Egyptian pyramid builders to Renaissance Europe’s quest for more accurate artillery, from the earliest known trigonometric table, carved on a clay tablet by an unknown Babylonian scholar, to Fourier’s famous theorem, which finally explained the source
of musical harmony, here is a rich tapestry of almost four thousand years of trigonometric history. Trigonometric Delights will change forever our view of a once-dreaded subject.
*Contents Angles; Chords; Six functions come of age; Trigonometry becomes analytic; Measuring heaven and earth; Two theorems from geometry; Epicycloids and hypocycloids;
Variations on a theme by Gauss; Had Zeno only known this! (sin x)/x; A remarkable formula; tan x; A mapmaker’s paradise; sin x = 2: Imaginary trigonometry; Fourier’s theorem; Appendices; Bibliography; Index. 256pp. (2000) 240 × 160mm ISBN 97881 7371 2067
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Pages : 256
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