3 ms·

> and it causes various oddities elsewhere in math. Could someone elaborate? First, explain the one example from the article (cos(355)) and perhaps show some o

• _delirium 14y ago
  If p/q is a close approximation to π, then cos(p), taken in radians, will be close to +1 or -1, because it implies that p is close to an integer multiple of π, and therefore cos(p) is close to the cosine of an integer multiple of π: p/q =~ π p =~ qπ cos(p) =~ cos(qπ) In turn, the cosine of an integer multiple of π is +1 or -1 because the period of cosine (as a trigonometric function) is 2π radians, with maxima at 0, 2π, 4π, ... and minima at π, 3π, 5π, ...