Using SIN in Excel

  • Thread starter Thread starter mcmcom
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mcmcom

Hi All, I am having a problem figuring out a formula for Excel.

I have a problem where the solution is

6SIN60 This should produce 5.196
However I can't figure how to write it.

Ive Tried
=6Sin(60) Which produces a ?NAME error
=6+Sin(60) Which produces 5.70
=6*Sin(60) Which produces -1.83

What am I doing wrong??? Thank
 
Excel does all trig functions in radians, not degrees.
Therefore, if you are using degrees, you need to use the RADIANS
function to convert degrees to radians. E.g.,

=6*SIN(RADIANS(60))


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
 
Would the same be true for COS? =COS(RADIANS())

Chip Pearson said:
Excel does all trig functions in radians, not degrees.
Therefore, if you are using degrees, you need to use the RADIANS
function to convert degrees to radians. E.g.,

=6*SIN(RADIANS(60))


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
Click to expand...
 
Philippe,

Yes, the same would be true for the COS function. All trig
functions use radians, so if you use degrees, you must convert to
radians with the RADIANS function.



Philippe L. Balmanno said:
Would the same be true for COS? =COS(RADIANS())
Click to expand...
 
Philippe L. Balmanno said:
Thanks
Click to expand...

I wonder why Excel, which is really a business program rather than a
scientific one, sticks to using radians rather than degrees? Inertia,
pretensions or laziness?
 
My Guess:

1) Compatibility with previous versions.
2) Compatibility with previous versions.
3) Compatibility with previous versions.
4) Not enough consumer demand to change.
 
When I was in school, many eons ago, all the engineering, math and
physics books I used
referenced angle in radians, not degrees. Has that changed? If not,
then M$ is at the apex
of the equlateral triange, which has three equal angles of ?/3
 
It may have started life as a business app but scientists and engineers use
it now.
Radians are mathematical more 'natural' ; degrees are arbitrary (360 deg to
a circle because of 365 days in a year)
Business people do no need trig so MS is correct in leaving radians as the
units for angles.
 
Bernard Liengme said:
It may have started life as a business app but scientists and engineers use
it now.
Radians are mathematical more 'natural' ; degrees are arbitrary (360 deg to
a circle because of 365 days in a year)
Click to expand...

360 degrees has nothing to do with 365 days in a year.

The ancient Babylonians used a sexagesimal (base 60) number system. The
perimeter of a hexagon is exactly 6 times the radius of a circumscribed
circle. Therefore it was "natural" for them to divide the angle
subtended by each side by 60, to get 6 * 60 degrees.

365 days in a year, OTOH, is an artifact of the Earth's rotational
period and the time it takes to orbit Sol.
Business people do no need trig so MS is correct in leaving radians as the
units for angles.
Click to expand...

Suppose it depends a bit on what business the business people are in,
doesn't it? I know a couple of business people that use trig all the
time - describing demand models in terms of superposed sinusoidal waves.

In any case, I suspect the reason that radians are still used has more
to do with Lotus having used radians, and the need to maintain backward
compatibility, than any serious consideration of future customer needs.
And rightly so.
 
wow,

Quite a response.

This is what I did like 30 seconds after I wrote the first message an
it works:

=G17*SIN(C17/(180/PI()))/SIN(D17/(180/PI()))

Basically just put in the SIN(n/(180/pi()))
I don't know if usuing SIN(RADIANS(n)) or SIN(DEGREES(n)) works as wel
or not!

Thanks for the hel
 
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