Georg Bauhaus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: | Marc Espie wrote: | > Sorry for chiming in after all this time, but I can't let this pass. | > Scott, where on earth did you pick up your trig books ? | | Sorry, too, but why one earth do modern time mathematics scholars | think that sine and cosine are bound to have to do with an equally | modern notion of real numbers that clearly exceed what a circle | has to offer?
It depends on the mathematical definitions you have for cosine and sine. Standard mathematics make them functions the domain of which contains the real line -- traditional expositions may use power series or differential equatioons (but that does not matter much). The relation to circle is coincidental (happily!), not fundamental. Which is why they do not have narrow scope. Ah, yes, it has nothing to do with people being "scholars". -- Gaby
