HOME
Course Chapters
Calculator Fundamentals
Mathematics Review
Basic Concepts
Advanced Concepts
Section Tests
Pre-test
Post-test
Useful Materials
Glossary
Online Calculators
Redox Calculator
Kinetics Arrhenius Calculator
Thermodynamics Calculator
Nuclear Decay Calculator
Linear Least Squares Regression
Newton's Method Equation Solver
Compressibility Calculator
Units Conversion Calculator
Nomenclature Calculator
Related Information Links
Texas Instruments Calculators
Casio Calculators
Sharp Calculators
Hewlett Packard Calculators
Credits
Credits
Contact Webmaster
|
Another Problem 1
Find an angle in both radians and degrees whose cosine
is equal to half the sine of the angle. Express your answer
correctly rounded to 5 significant digits.
Solution: 1.1071 radians, 63.435 degrees
Sketch:
This is a problem that your calculator will not help unless you can
translate the problem into an expression that can be evaluated. We picked this
example so that you would see that your calculator will not solve the problems
for you. You will
need to use simple trigonometry and algebra to do this. In this problem,
the key substitution is remembering that: COS2 X + SIN2 X = 1
for any angle X. You will need
to know if your calculator is in radians mode or degrees mode to know
what the answer is.
For example: with the calculator in radians mode, with pencil and paper, do the following:
- Transform the problem statement into an equation, word for word;
when you read this expression it should be as close to the problem
statement as possible: x = COS-1 (.5* SIN x) (Note: x is
on both sides of the equation.)
- Take the COS of both sides, now the expression reads:
COS X = .5* SIN X
- Square both sides, substitute 1 - SIN2 X for COS X,
and simplify:
X = SIN-1 SQRT 4/5
- NOW, use your calculator to evaluate the right side of this equation to find X:
1.107148718 radians. To 5 sig figs this is 1.1071 radians.
You may either convert this number to degrees (hint: there are pi radians in
180 degrees), or you can put the calculator in degrees mode and resolve the last expression above to get 63.435 degrees, to 5 significant figures.
Try another problem like this one.
Next Try It Out Problem.
|