"In a work on the three dimensions of bodies, Ptolemy introduced the idea of determining the position of a point in space by referring it to three rectangular axes of coordinates... His chief work, which he called a mathematical Σύνταξις [Syntax], was further described by his admirers as ή μεγύλη, and by the Arabs as ' ή μεγίστη [maximum]... In it... he reproduces the theorem of the six segments... and founds upon it a system of trigonometry, plane and spherical."
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Ref: 1) (ibid. p. 272) 2) Dictio Prima, cap. 12. fol. 95. Venet. 1515. 3) Delambre, Histoire de L'Astronomie Ancienne (Paris 1817) tome II, comparing the Præfatio to the 3rd volume of Fridericus Hultsch, Pappi Alexandrini collectionis quae supersunt (1876)
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History of trigonometry
begins with the early study of triangles, traced to the , in () and . Trigonometry was also prevalent in Kushite mathematics.
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