![secret trig](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/files/2013/09/secret-trig.png)
A diagram with a unit circle and more trig functions than you can shake a stick at. (It’s well known that you can shake a stick at a maximum of 8 trig functions.) The familiar sine, cosine, and tangent are in red, blue, and, well, tan, respectively. The versine is in green next to the cosine, and the exsecant is in pink to the right of the versine. Excosecant and coversine are also in the image. Not pictured: vercosine, covercosine, and haver-anything. Image: Tttrung and Steven G. Johnson, via Wikimedia Commons.
On Monday, the Onion reported that the “Nation’s math teachers introduce 27 new trig functions.” It’s a funny read. The gamsin, negtan, and cosvnx from the Onion article are fictional, but the piece has a kernel of truth: there are 10 secret trig functions you’ve never heard of, and they have delightful names like “haversine” and “exsecant.”
Read the full post at Roots of Unity to learn more about these “secret trig functions.”
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