atan2 man page on OpenBSD

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ATAN2(3)		  OpenBSD Programmer's Manual		      ATAN2(3)

NAME
     atan2, atan2f, atan2l - arc tangent functions of two variables

SYNOPSIS
     #include <math.h>

     double
     atan2(double y, double x);

     float
     atan2f(float y, float x);

     long double
     atan2l(long double y, long double x);

DESCRIPTION
     The atan2() function computes the principal value of the arc tangent of
     y/x, using the signs of both arguments to determine the quadrant of the
     return value.  The atan2f() function is a single precision version of
     atan2().  The atan2l() function is an extended precision version of
     atan2().

RETURN VALUES
     The atan2(), atan2f() and atan2l() functions, if successful, return the
     arc tangent of y/x in the range [-pi, +pi] radians.  If both x and y are
     zero, the global variable errno is set to EDOM.  On the VAX:

     atan2(y, x) :=	  atan(y/x)			  if x > 0,

			  sign(y)*(pi - atan(|y/x|))	  if x < 0,

			  0				  if x = y = 0, or

			  sign(y)*pi/2			  if x = 0, y != 0.

NOTES
     The function atan2() defines "if x > 0," atan2(0, 0) = 0 on a VAX despite
     that previously atan2(0, 0) may have generated an error message.  The
     reasons for assigning a value to atan2(0, 0) are these:

	   1.	Programs that test arguments to avoid computing atan2(0, 0)
		must be indifferent to its value.  Programs that require it to
		be invalid are vulnerable to diverse reactions to that
		invalidity on diverse computer systems.

	   2.	The atan2() function is used mostly to convert from
		rectangular (x,y) to polar (r,theta) coordinates that must
		satisfy x = r*cos theta and y = r*sin theta.  These equations
		are satisfied when (x=0,y=0) is mapped to (r=0,theta=0) on a
		VAX.  In general, conversions to polar coordinates should be
		computed thus:

		      r	   := hypot(x,y);  ... := sqrt(x*x+y*y)
		      theta	:= atan2(y,x).

	   3.	The foregoing formulas need not be altered to cope in a
		reasonable way with signed zeros and infinities on a machine
		that conforms to IEEE 754; the versions of hypot(3) and
		atan2() provided for such a machine are designed to handle all
		cases.	That is why atan2(+-0, -0) = +-pi for instance.	 In
		general the formulas above are equivalent to these:

		      r := sqrt(x*x+y*y); if r = 0 then x := copysign(1,x);

SEE ALSO
     acos(3), asin(3), atan(3), cos(3), cosh(3), math(3), sin(3), sinh(3),
     tan(3), tanh(3)

STANDARDS
     The atan2() function conforms to ANSI X3.159-1989 (``ANSI C'').

OpenBSD 4.9			March 26, 2010			   OpenBSD 4.9
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