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

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

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.

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

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

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!!" <!!HELP!!@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:14748B53-FEC9-482A-8348-403EDE30AC49@microsoft.com...
> 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

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!!" <!!HELP!!@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:14748B53-FEC9-482A-8348-403EDE30AC49@microsoft.com...
> > 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
>
>
>