trig problems in excel, cant get tan function working

Thread Starter

ninjaman

Joined May 18, 2013
341
Hello,

I am trying to answer a book question in excel,
draw the following graph:

y = 2 tan(theta+60degrees) for 0 < theta < 360

I have tried converting to degrees and using the degree() function and I am not getting the result shown in the answers section.

I use the asterisk in between 2 * tan, not sure what I am doing wrong here.

Thanks
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,979
What, exactly, is the function you've typed in to the cell?

The tan() function requires an argument in radians, not degrees. The degrees() function (I'm not aware of a degree() function) converts an argument in radians to degrees. You need to do the opposite and convert an argument in degrees to radians. Take a guess what that function is called.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,979
Oh, and one thing to watch out for is that the tan() function goes singular (i.e., to infinity) when it's argument is either 90° or 270°.
 
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