Adding sine

exercise No. 118

Implementing $\sin (x)$ .

We may implement $\sin (x)$ in a similar fashion to Equation 1, “Power series definition of $f (x) = e^{x}$ ”:

Equation 2. Power series definition of

f (x) = \sin (x)

\begin{matrix} \sin (x) = x - \frac{x^{3}}{3!} + \frac{x^{5}}{5!} - \frac{x^{7}}{7!} + ... \\ = \sum_{k = 0}^{\infty} {(-1)}^{k} \frac{x^{2 k + 1}}{(2 k + 1)!} \end{matrix}

Extend Figure 297, “An implementation sketch for the exponential” by adding a second method double sin(double). Do not forget to add suitable Javadoc comments and watch the generated documentation.

Test your implementation by calculating the known values $\sin (\frac{π}{2})$ , $\sin (π)$ and $\sin (4 π)$ using java.lang.Math.PI. Explain your results' accuracy for these arguments.

Maven module source code available at P/Sd1/math/V2.
See hints regarding import.

Taking seven terms into account we have the following results:

sin(pi/2)=0.9999999999939768, difference=-6.023181953196399E-12
sin(pi)=-7.727858895155385E-7, difference=-7.727858895155385E-7
sin(4 * PI)=-9143.306026012957, difference=-9143.306026012957

As with the implementation of $e^{x}$ larger (positive or negative) argument values show growing differences. On the other hand the approximation is remarkably precise for smaller arguments. The reason again is the fact that our power series is just a polynomial approximation showing errors growing along with larger argument values:

Figure 299. Comparing sin(x) and its approximation.

\sin (x)

and

p_{9} (x) = x - \frac{x^{3}}{3!} + \frac{x^{7}}{7!} - \frac{x^{9}}{9!}

The approximation is very good for smaller values but diverges rapidly for $4 < x$ .

You may also view the implementation of double Math.sin(double) along with its Javadoc.

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Implementing exponentials.	Home	Strange things happen

Building a library of mathematical functions.

Adding sine

Implementing sin ⁡ ( x ) .

Implementing $\sin (x)$ .