# Basic Trig

• 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

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

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!

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