Early Trigonometry

The branch of mathematics that we know as trigonometry today

was developed over long periods of time by many people and
History of Mathematics:
many cultures.
Greek Trigonometry Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians started the study by
examining the ratios of sides of similar triangles, but there
was no concept of angle measurement.
Chaogui Zhang
The Greeks began a systematic study of relationships
Department of Mathematics between angles in a circle and the lengths of chords
Marywood University subtending these.
Euclid and Archimedes proved theorems that are
equivalent to our modern day trignometric laws, but stated
using geometric terms.

Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry

Aristarchus of Samos Aristarchus of Samos

The Greek astronomers encountered problems that made it Subsequently, he derived the distance to the sun is
necessary to study the relationships between angles and between 18 to 20 times that to the moon, using the
chords in a circle. equivalent of
Aristarchus proposed a heliocentric system, about 1700 sin α α tan α
< < .
years before Copernicus. However, his work on this sin β β tan β
subject has been lost. which implies
An earlier treatise by Aristarchus, assuming a geocentric 1 1
< sin 3◦ < .
universe, survived. 20 18
Aristarchus observed that, at half-moon, the angle
between the lines of sight to the sun and the moon is 87◦ Today, we know the sun is about 400 times further away
(not expressed in this notation though). It should have than the moon is from the earth, but his only error was the
been 89◦ 500 as we know today. observation of the angle, not the mathematical reasoning.

Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Aristarchus of Samos
Once Aristarchus determined the relative distances of the sun
and moon, he then went on and estimated their sizes relative to
that of the earth. The following is a diagram showing his
calculations. It is from a 10th century Greek copy.
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Hipparchus of Nicaea Menelaus of Alexandria
Hipparchus is known as “the father of trigonometry".
He compiled the first trigonometric table during the second
half of the second century B.C.
The purpose of the trigonometric tables was for use in his
astronomy.
The systematic use of the 360◦
circle seems likely to be
due to Hipparchus, but he may have taken from Hypsicles,
a mathematician and astronomer who lived at about the
same time as Hipparchus.
The works of Hipparchus are lost except for a commentary
on a popular astronomical poem. It is due to Ptolemy’s
Almagest and other references that we learned about the
work of Hipparchus.
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Eratosthenes of Cyrene
Eratosthenes is probably best known for the “sieve of
Eratosthenes", but he is also an astronomer and established
the best estimate (at the time) for the size of the earth.
At noon on the day of summer solstice, he observed that
the sun shined directly down a deep well at Syene (known
as Aswan today) while, at Alexandria at the same time, the
sun made an angle that is 1/50 of a circle (or 7.2◦ in our
notation).
Therefore Eratosthenes Z
A
concluded that the S0
circumference of the earth O S
S 00
must be 50 times the
distance between Syene
and Alexandria.
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
It was reported by Theon of Alexandria that a treatise in six
books titled Chords in a Circle, by Menelaus of Alexandra,
existed. However, the only surviving work of Menelaus is his
Sphaerica, preserved through Arabic.
The basics of spherical triangles were established in Book
I of Sphaerica, including a theorem that says two spherical
triangles are congruent if corresponding angles are equal.
It is also established that in a spherical triangle, the sum of
the three angles is greater than 180◦ .
Book II describes the application of spherical geometry to
astronomical phenomena.
Book III contains the well-known “theorem of Menelaus".
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Ptolemy’s Almagest Ptolemy’s Theorem

The Mathematical Syntaxis by Ptolemy of Alexandria, of

thirteen books, is now commonly known as Almagest (“the
greatest").
B
Again, we do not know much about the life of Ptolemy, AB · CD + BC · DA = AC · BD
such as when he was born.
C
We do know that Ptolemy made observations at Alexandria
from A.D. 127 to 151. He was also reportedly alive under
E
Marcus Aurelius, who ruled from A.D. 161 to 180. A

It is commonly accepted that Almagest relied heavily on D

the Chords in a Circle by Hipparchus, but it is unknown to
exactly what extent.
Ptolemy’s tables as well as his methods of construction for
these tables are available to us today, although we don’t
know how much of that was derived from Hipparchus.

Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry

Ptolemy’s Formulas 360◦ Circle and Construction of Tables

One special case of Ptolemy’s Theorem (when one side AD is

the diameter of the circle) leads us to the following
trigonometric identities:
B
C
sin(α±β) = sin α cos β±cos α sin β
cos(α±β) = cos α cos β∓sin α sin β
A D
The equivalent of the formula
for sin(α − β) together with the
half-angle formula allowd
Ptolemy to effectively
construct his trigonometric
tables.
Following astronomy practices and using the Babylonian
sexagesimal system for fractions, Ptolemy divided the
circumference of a circle into 360 degrees and divided the
diameter of the circle into 120 parts.
Then one can easily convert between our modern
trigonometric notation and that used by Ptolemy.
chord 2x chord(180◦ − 2x)
sin x = and cos x = .
120 120
Starting with 120◦ and 72◦ (with the help of a theorem from
Euclid’s Elements XIII.9), Ptolemy built up the
trigonometric table by applying the formulas repeatedly.

Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Ptolemaic Astronomy
Ptolemy’s table is essentially a sine function table for all
1◦ 1◦
angles from to 90◦ by steps of . This served the
4 4
astronomers for over a millinium very well.
The other twelve books of the Almagest contain things like
the theory of cycles and epicycles for the planets known as
the Ptolemaic system.
Ptolemy, like many other thinkers at the time, assumed a
geocentric universe.
The Ptolemaic system accieved accurate representations
of planetary motions by abandoning the insistence on
uniform circular motions.
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Optics and Astrology
Ptolemy also wrote a book called Optics, which survived
imperfectly through a Latin translation from Arabic.
The Optics deals with the physics of light. An attempt at a
law of refraction was made, although apparently he was
not looking for a trigonometric interpretation for the law of
refraction.
One other amazing book by Ptolemy is his Tetrabiblos,
which demonstrates the author’s almost blind acceptance
of the superstitions and pseudoscience of the time.
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Other Works by Ptolemy
His other works include the Geography, in which Ptolemy
introduced the system of latitudes and longitudes as used
today.
The lack of methods for accurate determination of
longitude resulted in substantial error in the Geography.
Ptolemy also chose a very bad estimate for the size of the
earth, which resulted in his gross over estimate of the
Eurasian world. He estimated it at over 180◦ in longitude,
while the true value at about 130◦ .
The Analemma and the Planisphaerium, which only
survived through Arabic/Latin translations, introduced two
types of map projection: Orthographic and stereographic
projections.
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Heron of Alexandria
Heron (fl. ca. A.D. 100) was once thought to be Egyptian
or Phoenician rather than Greek.
He is probably best known for the triangle area formula that
bears his name, although Archimedes had undoubtedly
proved it earlier.
However, the proof of Heron’s formula in the Metrica is the
earliest that survived.
The Metrica was again long lost until its rediscovery in
1896. It is mainly concerned with the typical Babylonian
type of problems in mensuration of lengths, areas and
volumes.
The Geometrica further demonstrates Heron’s difference
from classical deductive geometry which emphasizes
reasoning. His books focused on numerical mensuration
problems almost all the time.
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Principle of Least Distance
Heron, in his Catoptrics, showed (geometrically) that if light
is to travel from a source to a mirror and then to the eye of
an observer, the shortest possible path is that in which the
two angles made by the light path with the mirror are equal.
His other works include Pneumatics and Mechanics.
His name is also attached to “Heron’s algorithm" for finding
square roots, but the Babylonians had already used the
same technique 2000 years earlier.
Heron used unit fractions of the Egyptians instead of the
more advanced sexagesimals of the Mesopotamians.
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry
Decline of Greek Mathematics
The period from Hipparchus to Ptolemy (about three
centuries), was one in which applied mathematics was
getting more and more attention, while purely theoretical
considerations, such as those by Euclid and his
contemporaries, were of little concern.
“It sometimes is held that mathematics develops most
effectively when in close touch with the worlds’s work; but
the period we have been considering would argue for the
opposite thesis."
Chaogui Zhang History of Mathematics:Greek Trigonometry