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What is math.cos and math.sin?

Asked by

5 years ago

I have seen math.cos and math.sin in a lot of scripts that use view bobbing. As of now, I am trying to make my FPS gun have a walking animation, but right now all it does is just move left and right with no upper animation.

I believe I need to know what math.cos and math.sin means before I can start finishing the walking animation.

Can anyone give me a brief explanation of what math.cos and math.sin is so I can understand it better? I already know what it is used for, but I don't know how to utilize it in scripting locally. I don't need any code answers, just a simple explanation of what it does. (the wiki didn't help)

trigonometry, learn it. radusavin366 617 — 5y

if you're in a grade less than 8 then don't bother it and learn a different way to create an upper animation, because it would be difficult for you to understand. mixgingengerina10 223 — 5y

i wouldnt tell him not to bother, its not that difficult to understand, the 8th grade is recommended for the average student, what if hes above? radusavin366 617 — 5y

I provided an explanation, should be easy(ish) to understand. abnotaddable 920 — 5y

please accept my answer if it helped. abnotaddable 920 — 5y

1 answer

Answered by

abnotaddable 920

5 years ago

Edited 5 years ago

Well, math.sin and math.cos are both trigonometry.
math.sin will return values between 1 and -1 when you input a number between 0.5pi (90 degrees) and 1.5pi (270 degrees) and back to 2.5 pi (450 degrees).
math.cos will return values between 1 and -1 when you input a number between 0pi (0 degrees) and 1pi (180 degrees) and back to 2pi (360 degrees).

We will use the following to show you what you would get with both functions:

0 degrees : 0 pi
90 degrees : 0.5 pi
180 degrees : 1 pi
270 degrees : 1.5 pi

sin 0 pi = 0
sin 0.5 pi = 1
sin 1 pi = 0
sin 1.5 pi = -1

cos 0 pi = 1
cos 0.5 pi = 0
cos 1 pi = -1
cos 1.5 pi = 0

What this means, as you see is, you get different outputs even when you put in the same numbers, this is because cosine leads by 90 degrees .

If we put this into a practical coding situation, we need to wrap it inside a steppedloop then put the double value inside of the functions; as shown:

game:GetService("RunService").Stepped:Connect(function(double)
    --double means: starting at 0 then adding step onto it each time it runs
    print("step : " .. tostring(double) .. " math.sin :  " .. tostring(math.sin(double)))
    print("step : " .. tostring(double) .. " math.cos :  " .. tostring(math.cos(double)))
end)

You'll notice, if you run this , they print different values, but both cycle through 1 and -1.

There are somethings we can change though: the amplitude and the wavelength. If you do math.sin(double*math.pi*2), you'll notice that it cycles through 1 and -1 every second. This is the wavelength. If you do 2*math.sin(double*math.pi*2) you'll notice that it cycles through 2 and -2 every second, this is called amplitude.

As shown through an example:

amplitude = 10 --the minimum and maximum value becomes -10 and 10.
wavelength = (math.pi * 2) / 5 --the '5' means it takes 5 seconds it takes to cycle.
game:GetService("RunService").Stepped:Connect(function(double)
    print(amplitude * math.sin(double * wavelength))
end)

Then plug these into a Vector3 or a CFrame, to get the "breathing effect".

I hope this helped you understand math.sin and math.cos, and if it did, please accept this answer. :)

What is math.cos and math.sin?

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