Cosine

Pronunciation: /ˈkoʊ.saɪn/ Explain
Abbreviation: cos

Click on the blue points and drag them to change the figure. Manipulative 1 - Cosine Created with GeoGebra.

In right triangle trigonometry, the Cosine is defined to be equal to the length of the side adjacent to the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.[2] On the unit circle, cosine is the directed distance of a point on the unit circle from the y-axis. The inverse of the cosine function is the arccosine function. The arccosine function can be written as arccos() or cos-1().

References

1. McAdams, David E.. All Math Words Dictionary, cosine. 2nd Classroom edition 20150108-4799968. pg 49. Life is a Story Problem LLC. January 8, 2015. Buy the book
2. Fine, Henry B., Ph. D.. Number-System of Algebra Treated Theoretically and Historically. 2nd edition. pp 28,47. www.archive.org. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, U.S.A.. 1907. Last Accessed 6/25/2018. http://www.archive.org/stream/thenumbersystemo17920gut/17920-pdf#page/n37/mode/1up/search/cosine. Buy the book
3. Hutton, Charles. A Course in Mathematics, Volume II. 4th edition. pp 2-3. www.archive.org. G. & J. Robinson. 1804. Last Accessed 6/25/2018. http://www.archive.org/stream/courseofmathemat02huttrich#page/2/mode/1up/search/cosecant. Buy the book

More Information

• McAdams, David E.. Secant. allmathwords.org. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem LLC. 6/27/2018. http://www.allmathwords.org/en/s/secant.html.

Cite this article as:

McAdams, David E. Cosine. 4/16/2019. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem LLC. http://www.allmathwords.org/en/c/cosine.html.

Image Credits

• All images and manipulatives are by David McAdams unless otherwise stated. All images by David McAdams are Copyright © Life is a Story Problem LLC and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Revision History

4/16/2019: Updated equations and expressions to new format. (McAdams, David E.)
12/21/2018: Reviewed and corrected IPA pronunication. (McAdams, David E.)
6/25/2018: Removed broken links, updated license, implemented new markup, updated GeoGebra apps. (McAdams, David E.)
1/5/2010: Expanded "References". (McAdams, David E.)
12/19/2009: Added "References". (McAdams, David E.)
12/2/2008: Added reference to arccosine. (McAdams, David E.)
10/30/2008: Changed manipulative to GeoGebra. (McAdams, David E.)
4/30/2008: Initial version. (McAdams, David E.)