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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from rimoshika, a student: prove that we can't write sinx and cosx as a finite polynomial. |
One way to approach this is:
- a finite polynomial of degree n has at most n points where it crosses the x axis (roots)
- sin(x) and cos(x) have an infinite number of points where it crosses the x axis (roots).
Walter Whiteley
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