Cosine Plot
This figure illustrates the graph of cosine function from to (tau) radians. The cosine function returns the horizontal component of the point formed by the angle (theta) on the unit circle. The geometric constant (tau) has the approximate value of .
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The cosine function returns the cosine of an angle provided in radians. In geometric terms, the function returns the ratio of the right-triangle's adjacent side over its hypotenuse.
Radians are a unit that measure angle using the radius of a circle. One radian is equal to the amount of rotation required to travel the length of one radius along the circumference of the circle.
The unit circle is a circle of radius one placed at the origin of the coordinate system. This article discusses how the unit circle represents the output of the trigonometric functions for all real numbers.
The circle constant τ (tau) is a geometric constant approximately equal to 6.283. The numeric value is defined as the length of any circle's circumference divided by the length of its radius.