James C. answered • 10/22/20
Invested in my students.
My disclaimer first, I studied electrical engineering and physics,not civil, mechanical, chemical, nuclear, biological, or any other kind of engineering.I do write code, but I am not a computer scientist either. That said, as far as I am aware it is mostly a matter of what is being represented by the variables.
Mechanical engineering and Civil engineering tend to use trigonometry more often in the three physical dimensions, for things like breaking forces into orthogonal components, determining torques ( also splitting force components ), or determining strength of structures to different kinds of stress or strain. They also use it for other things, but this tends to be common for many engineers. These applications also lend themselves well to the use of trigonometric functions or ratios directly.
Electrical Engineers most often use trigonometry in the time dimension. We tend to think of sine and cosine in particular as sinusoidal wave forms first and ratios second or third or much later. Sine and Cosine in particular are also 90 degrees apart, and can be thought of as forming an orthogonal basis set for waves, so that any wave can be represented by a linear combination of sines and cosines with appropriate frequencies and ratios.This is Fourier analysis and is used in other fields too, like physics or chemistry, but it is usually done in complex exponential form to make integration and derivation simpler. This can make it somewhat harder to recognize as trigonometry, but it is just an easier way to deal with the same concepts.
Computer scientists may or may not use it, depending on where and on what they work. Most will though, I think. It comes in handy for graphics, physics engines, and other models. All math, including trig, is about creating something simple that behaves like the real world in some way. The analogies aren't always obvious when learning it, but they are there. Computer programming is also about creating something that corresponds to the real world in some way. Math is often the bridge that makes that connection. If a software program matches the math for how many patients a doctor can see in a day and the math matches or at least approaches the real number a given doctor is able to help, that program can be useful for projecting staffing needs at a hospital given a little more data and math about how likely people are to need a doctor in a given area, time of year, weather, or whatever else might affect peoples health or cause accidents or violence. When coding, most people match the mathematical model because it allows prediction of or application to future situations. No one may ever fire a cannon from the top of Olympus Mons, but we can use math (especially trig) to predict what would happen if they did with a lot of confidence. Computer programming inherits all of its predictive power and usefulness from math, used repeatedly.
I realize this answer is very late, but thought it might at least be interesting to someone.
