#23: Computing Tangent

Tagged as challenge

Written on 2018-01-30

The tangent of a number $\tan x$ is defined as $\sin x/\cos x$. We can compute tangent by using this definition, or we can make use of a so-called addition formula. The addition formula for tangent is

​ $$\tan (a + b) = \frac{\tan a + \tan b}{1 - \tan a \tan b}.$$

If we wish to compute $\tan x$, then we can compute $\tan(x/2 + x/2)$:

​ $$\tan(\tfrac{x}{2} + \tfrac{x}{2}) = \frac{\tan\tfrac{x}{2} + \tan\tfrac{x}{2}}{1-(\tan\tfrac{x}{2})(\tan\tfrac{x}{2})}=\frac{2\tan\tfrac{x}{2}}{1-(\tan\tfrac{x}{2})^2}$$

We also know something about tangent when the argument is small, namely that tangent is almost linear: $\tan x\approx x$

Part 1

Write a recursive function tangent using the methods above to compute the tangent of a number. It is not necessary to handle undefined cases (odd multiples of $\pi/2$).

Part 2

Write an iterative version of tangent called tangent-iter which avoids tree recursion (i.e., doesn't consume any stack space due to recursion).

Test Cases

Test your code by comparing against your language's built in tangent function. Note that your results may not match precisely, due to the linear approximation ($\tan x \approx x$) and due to other floating point issues.

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