TAN different to a calculator? Please help would be appreciated lo

[!!HELP!!]

Hi,

I am doing my GCSE at the moment and I have come up with a fomula to
calculate the area of any polygon. My formula includes TAN but when I use the
TAN function on Excel it gives me a completely different answer to my
calculator.

Please help, is TAN different in America? Sorry if this sounds really stupid
but I need to know.

Thanks

[MrShorty]

What units (degrees, radians, gradians) is your calculator set to? My US version of Excel requires the argument to the TAN function to be in radians, and I would assume that would be the same for versions for other countries. If your argument is in degrees, convert it to radians before applying the TAN function.

[Pete]

Do you know the difference between degrees and radians? I suspect you
are using degrees but you need radians in the TAN( ) formula - Help
will explain how to convert.

Pete

[David Billigmeier]

Be careful when using trig functions, you gotta make sure you're using
radians/degrees correctly. The TAN() in excel handles Radians. For example
to get the tangent of 45 DEGREES use the following formula:

=TAN(45*PI()/180)

--
Regards,
Dave


"!!HELP!!" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am doing my GCSE at the moment and I have come up with a fomula to
> calculate the area of any polygon. My formula includes TAN but when I use the
> TAN function on Excel it gives me a completely different answer to my
> calculator.
>
> Please help, is TAN different in America? Sorry if this sounds really stupid
> but I need to know.
>
> Thanks

[Bernard Liengme]

David's answer is correct but to save you remembering is it PI()/180 or
180/Pi()
use the RADIANS and DEGREES function.
A1 has 45 entered (meaning 45 degrees), to get the tan of this angle use
=TAN(RADIANS(A1))
B1 has 0.866 and you what the asin (inverse sine), use =DEGREES(ASIN(B1))

best wishes with GCSE - I took mine 50 years ago when it was called 'O'
level
--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"!!HELP!!" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi,
>
> I am doing my GCSE at the moment and I have come up with a fomula to
> calculate the area of any polygon. My formula includes TAN but when I use
> the
> TAN function on Excel it gives me a completely different answer to my
> calculator.
>
> Please help, is TAN different in America? Sorry if this sounds really
> stupid
> but I need to know.
>
> Thanks

[!!HELP!!]

Thanks people!!

That really helped me, the website just made it sound sooo complicated. I
fully understand it and thank you greatly for your assistance!

"Bernard Liengme" wrote:

> David's answer is correct but to save you remembering is it PI()/180 or
> 180/Pi()
> use the RADIANS and DEGREES function.
> A1 has 45 entered (meaning 45 degrees), to get the tan of this angle use
> =TAN(RADIANS(A1))
> B1 has 0.866 and you what the asin (inverse sine), use =DEGREES(ASIN(B1))
>
> best wishes with GCSE - I took mine 50 years ago when it was called 'O'
> level
> --
> Bernard V Liengme
> www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
> remove caps from email
>
> "!!HELP!!" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am doing my GCSE at the moment and I have come up with a fomula to
> > calculate the area of any polygon. My formula includes TAN but when I use
> > the
> > TAN function on Excel it gives me a completely different answer to my
> > calculator.
> >
> > Please help, is TAN different in America? Sorry if this sounds really
> > stupid
> > but I need to know.
> >
> > Thanks
>
>
>