How do I put a Zenith Angle in my calculator?

CaityAnn

1.I am given a zenith angle of 73 (degrees) 17'30"



2. How do I compute (2360/5280)times cos(73 degrees, 17'30") with a ti 89 and a regular scientific calculator?



3. The solution is .446 degrees


Thank you sooo very much.

learningphysics

have a look at this link:

http://id.mind.net/~zona/mmts/trigon.../degMinSec.htm

convert to degrees...

to convert minutes to degrees divide by 60...
so 17' = 17/60 degrees

to convert seconds to degrees divide by 3600...
30" = 30/3600 degrees

But I don't see where the 0.446 comes from...

TVP45

Are you taking astronomy? Is the question about insolation?

Can you give the complete question?

weatherhead

on most casio and sharp calculators (FX series and DAL series, is what most students use in my part of the world), there is a button that looks like . , ,,
if your angle measurement is set to degrees, you can input DMS measurements like this:
73 (. , ,,) 17 (. , ,,) 30 (. , ,,) and it will do the calculation in DMS. On the casio it returns the andswer in DMS and you must press this button again when it displays the answer to show you in decimal degrees. Hope that helps. I have used a TI89 myself but can't think how it differs. I only have a TI83 to hand and that is very different to a TI89 I think