# Sin(?function?)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 23, 2000, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080 "2000-04-23T07:03:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2000, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/1 "2000-04-23T07:03:00Z")
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- I enter 46.869 on a calculator and hit Sin, and it returns .72979+. Which is correct (or at least, jibes with the rest of what I did). Sin(46.869) on the computer returns .2521+. What is this number? I can’t convert it to anything related to any of the numbers concerned. I am supposing that there is some automatic process that one machine does and the other doesn’t, but I cannot figure it out. 2 VBasic books and the MSDN CD are no help. - MC
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### Author:  [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2000, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/2 "2000-04-23T07:18:00Z")
A typical error in finding sines, cosines, and tangents is forgetting to put the number in _radians_ (the correct way) instead of _degress_.
So to answer your question…
sin(46.869) in _degrees_ = .72979
sin(46.869) in _radians_ = .25213
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2000, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/3 "2000-04-23T09:23:00Z")
FWIW the calculator that comes with WIN95/98 lets you choose degrees / radians / gradients. Now, what is a gradient?
oh, hit the pi button and just look at the number of decimals!
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### Author:  [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2000, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/4 "2000-04-23T13:21:00Z")
## Not gradient … I believe it’s just grad. A grad is 1/100 of a right angle (that is, a little less than a degree). They are used by surveyors; some of their calculations are much easier with a “nice” number like 100 units in a right angle.
jrf
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### Author:  [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2000, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/5 "2000-04-23T13:22:00Z")
A GRADIAN is 1/100th of 90 degrees, designed for the decimally obsessed. 400 gradians in a circle.
A GRADIENT is something like a directional derivative, guaranteed to glaze your eyes over or give you a headache.
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### Author:  [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2000, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/6 "2000-04-24T05:04:00Z")
A few months ago we had a nice discussion about [Why do circles have 400 gradians?](http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000453.html)
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2000, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/7 "2000-04-25T08:01:00Z")
I guess nobody bothered to actually check to see what the calculator actually says. When I wrote my posting mine said gradients and I just checked again and it still says the same thing.
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### Author:  [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2000, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/8 "2000-04-25T09:46:00Z")
Dang. I just checked myself. Another reason to make fun of microsoft.
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rocks
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### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2000, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/9 "2000-04-25T12:34:00Z")
If you’re talking about the calculator accessory which comes with Windows 98, mine says “Grads”. Maybe they fixed the error in some later version?
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“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
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### Author:  [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2000, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/10 "2000-04-25T13:02:00Z")
There seems to be pretty wide agreement that a grad is a grad (sometimes a gon, grade, g, or grd), not a gradient or a gradian.
[On-line Mathematics Dictionary](http://www.mathpropress.com/glossary/glossary.html):
“grad (or grade) 1/100th of a right angle”
url=http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictG.html]A Dictionary of Units of Measurement:
“gon another name for the grad (see below). …grad or grade (g or grd) a unit of angle measurement, equal to 1/400 circle, 0.01 right angle, 0.9°, or 54’. This unit was introduced in France, where it is called the grade, in the early years of the metric system. The grad is the English version, apparently introduced by engineers around 1900. Although many calculators will display angle measurements in grads as well as degrees or radians, it is difficult to find actual applications of the grad today.”
[http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/flore/oldleng.htm](http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/flore/oldleng.htm)]Old Units of Length:
“The French also defined a right angle as 400 grads, another superfluity.”
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jrf
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2000, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/11 "2000-04-25T13:10:00Z")
The function of Sin is to get yourself in trouble with the most high. . . uh. . . what. . .
Never mind.
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### Author:  [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2000, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/12 "2000-04-25T14:02:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Jinx wrote:
> If you’re talking about the calculator accessory which comes with Windows 98, mine says “Grads”. Maybe they fixed the error in some later version?
The one that comes with WinNT4.0 says “Grads”, but if you right-click it and select “What’s This?”, the explanation says “Sets trigonometric input for gradients when in decimal mode.” So it’s apparently not that they figured out that “grads” is right, but that they must have run out of room on the calculator’s panel. I don’t even understand the construction “sets input _for_ gradients”. Was this done in an English-speaking country?
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sin-function/11080/13 "2000-04-25T23:35:00Z")
A lot of the time you get the feeling that MS software is still made by a couple of guys in a garage.