Basic Trig

Printable View

September 3rd 2009, 01:01 PM
juliak

Basic Trig

There's some weird about what I'm doing - I'm not sure what it is

I'm trying to review basic SOHCAHTOA trig and all my working is right but when I put it into my calculator I get weird answers.

For example

x = 7.8/tan41

the answer is 8.97

i got 48.55073
September 3rd 2009, 01:09 PM
Taluivren

seems that 41 is in degrees but your calculator thinks it is in radians. Can you switch radians to degrees on your calculator?
September 3rd 2009, 01:16 PM
juliak

Yes!

Thank you so much!
September 3rd 2009, 01:18 PM
aidan

Quote:

Originally Posted by juliak

There's some weird about what I'm doing - I'm not sure what it is

I'm trying to review basic SOHCAHTOA trig and all my working is right but when I put it into my calculator I get weird answers.

For example

x = 7.8/tan41

the answer is 8.97

i got 48.55073

$\dfrac{7.8}{tan(41 radians) } = 8.972873576$ <-- CORRECT!

$\dfrac{7.8}{tan(41 degrees) } = 48.55073$ <-- CORRECT!

$\dfrac{7.8}{tan(41 grads) } = 10.38862$ <-- CORRECT!

Your calculator is fine.
However, it might OVERWORKED.

Check the [DRG] button. [Degrees Radians Grads]
September 3rd 2009, 01:20 PM
Taluivren

when calculator isn't at hand, it's good to remember 360 degrees = $2 \pi$ radians (-;