I know that the same way circular trigonometry is defined over the circle $ x^2 + y^2 = 1 $, hyperbolic trigonometry is defined over the hyperbola $ x^2 - y^2 = 1 $.
What I don't know is how deduced the formulas $$ \sinh x = \frac {e^x - e^{-x}} {2} \quad \text{and} \quad \cosh x = \frac {e^x + e^{-x}} {2} $$ are deduced.
My question is: How are the formulas for $ \sinh x $ and $ \cosh x $ deduced from the equation $ x^2 - y^2 = 1 $ of the unit hyperbola?
The parametric equation $$\left\{\begin{array}{rcl}x(t) &=&\cos t \\y(t) &=&\sin t \\ \end{array}\right.$$ parameterizes the unit circle $x^2 + y^2 = 1$, and we can check that the image of this curve lies inside the unit circle by checking that $$x(t)^2 + y(t)^2 = 1,$$ which upon substitution reduces to the Pythagorean identity $$\cos^2 t + \sin^2 t = 1.$$
Similarly, we can check that the image of the parametric equation $$\left\{\begin{array}{rcl}x(t) &=&\cosh t \\y(t) &=&\sinh t \\ \end{array}\right.$$ is contained inside the unit hyperbola $x^2 - y^2 = 1$ by substituting in that equation and checking that both sides are always equal. This in turn follows from the given definitions of $\cosh$ and $\sinh$.