Trigonometry

Abstract

Trigonometry as we know it and as we call it today is a product of the seventeenth century, but it has very deep roots. In antiquity, it all started with a stick sunk in the soil perpendicular to the ground, and with the measurement of its shadow in the sun. From repeated observations of the shadow, such things as the length of the day or the length of the year could be determined, as well as the location in the year of the solstices and equinoxes.