What are sin and cos and why are they used so frequently in math?
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Sine (shortened as sin) and Cosine (shortened as cos) are ratios of different sides of a triangle where one angle is a right angle. The length of one leg divided by the length of the hypotenuse and the length of the other leg divided by the length of the hypotenuse. The references are the angles of the other corner of the triangle. These are important because these ratios are useful as they are uniform regardless of the size of triangles. Even if things don’t look like they are triangles, using these methods we can make all kinds of calculations, especially if circles are concerned, as the ratios are still relevant in pretending their is a triangle inside a circle with the same properties, with the hypotenuse being the radius of the circle.
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