Talk:Trigonometric functions: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:19, 14 February 2025

Revision as of 15:22, 14 February 2025

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Parts of the article refer to the historical "discovery" of various trigonometric functions. Is it better to say something along the lines of "first defined by"? To me "discovery" means that the functions already existed and then were found, but I think of mathematical concepts as useful definitions rather than fundamentally already existing. For example, is it possible to discover the function "{{math|1=''Q''uantling(''x'') = tan(''x'') − 0.193000669241688266320}}", or am I the first to have defined it? —[[User:Quantling|<span class="texhtml"><i>Q</i></span>uantling]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Quantling|talk]]&nbsp;&#124;&nbsp;[[Special:Contributions/Quantling|contribs]]) 15:19, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

:For example, in some fields of mathematics one can pick and choose among some axioms. Seemingly these axioms are not fundamentally true in all contexts, ready to be discovered, but merely are useful in some contexts. —[[User:Quantling|<span class="texhtml"><i>Q</i></span>uantling]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Quantling|talk]]&nbsp;&#124;&nbsp;[[Special:Contributions/Quantling|contribs]]) 15:22, 14 February 2025 (UTC)