Abstract
THE interpretation of formulas in the trigonometry of plane and spherical triangles is greatly simplified by the expedient of designating the sides by the same letters, respectively, as the angles opposite those sides—one group of letters being capitals, A, B, C, and the other group small letters, a, b, c. The introduction of this notation is ascribed by Moritz Cantor, in his “Geschichte der Mathematik,” vol. iii., 1901, p. 561, to the Swiss mathematician, Leonhard Euler, who first used it in 1753 (“Histoire de l'Académie de Berlin, Année,” 1753, p. 231). It is the purpose of this note to point out that this simple, yet important, innovation was made nearly a century earlier.
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CAJORI, F. On the History of a Notation in Trigonometry. Nature 94, 642–643 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/094642c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/094642c0
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