2006-10-05 00:51:30 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
a french 18th century mathematician named Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier.
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Fourier.html
2006-10-05 00:57:45 · answer #1 · answered by wolschou 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The earliest use of sine appears in the Sulba Sutras written in ancient India from the 8th century BC to the 6th century BC. Trigonometric functions were later studied by Hipparchus of Nicaea (180-125 BC), Aryabhata (476–550), Varahamihira, Brahmagupta, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḵwārizmī, Abu'l-Wafa, Omar Khayyam, Bhaskara II, Nasir al-Din Tusi, Regiomontanus (1464), Ghiyath al-Kashi (14th century), Ulugh Beg's (14th century), Madhava (c. 1400), Rheticus , Rheticus' student Valentin Otho. Leonhard Euler's Introductio in analysin infinitorum (1748) was mostly responsible for establishing the analytic treatment of trigonometric functions in Europe, defining them as infinite series and presenting "Euler's formula."
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier.
2006-10-05 09:00:19 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, I want to say James Gregory, since he was a contemporary of mine, but in fact he was beaten by two centuries by an Indian guy named Madhava of Sangamagrama. That's the earliest discoverer that I know about, although given the tendency of mathematical discoveries to be repeated several times before finally becoming common knowledge, I have no proof that even he was the first.
2006-10-05 01:08:18 · answer #3 · answered by Pascal 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, But i wasn't
2006-10-05 00:53:36 · answer #4 · answered by akbar 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋