Calculate Sin/Cos/Tan By Hand - No Calculator Needed!

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Goliatbagge
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Does it exist a numerical method to calculate for example sin (42°), sin (43°), sin (44°) etc by hand?
 
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Goliatbagge said:
Does it exist a numerical method to calculate for example sin (42°), sin (43°), sin (44°) etc by hand?

Of course you will turn these into radians ... but since all of your values are near [itex]\pi/4[/itex], I would use,
[tex] \sin ( \pi/4 + x) = \sin(\pi/4) \cos(x) + \sin(x) \cos(\pi/4) = \left(\cos(x) + \sin(x) \right) / \sqrt{2}.[/tex]
Your values of [itex]x[/itex] are [itex]-\pi/180, -2 \pi/180, - 3 \pi/180, ...[/itex] which are small, so you can take the first few terms in the Taylor series for sin and cos near zero. Even approximating [itex]\cos(x) \approx 1[/itex] and [itex]\sin(x)\approx x[/itex] should get you several correct digits for the exact examples you gave.

jason

EDIT: I now see that this was included in adjacent's link above. I had just read the first part with the Taylor series about zero ... Oops!
 
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