trying to solve this example: 10·sin(50)/sin(110)
and wolfram says its 8.15. if i enter it the same way into google calculator, it says its 59.
and my own calculator says 7.15. it also says sin of 50 is 0.7, then google says sin of 50 is -0.2.
so i have no clue. how do i even solve this?
In: Mathematics
The sin function is just returning a number so as far as order of operations, just treat sin(x) as if it’s a number (assuming x is a random value ie 50, 12, etc).
You’re most likely getting different results due to degrees vs radians.
There’s 2 major types of sin() (and cos and tan) functions: those that takes degrees as inputs, and those that take radians as inputs. You’ve got a mixture here which is messing you up. sin(50 degrees) is about 0.7, sin(50 radians) is about -0.2.
Radians measure the distance around a circle not in degrees, but as a measurement of the curve around the circle you travel around a circle with a radius 1. Hence 360 degrees is `2 * pi` radians, since the circumference of a circle is `2 * pi * r` and the radius is 1.
Make sure you’re consistent with units. One might be using degrees to measure angles, whereas one might be using radians, or even steradians!
Did you check to make sure you are using the same angle measurements (degrees vs. radians)?
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