Find the length of the adjacent

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SUMMARY

The discussion revolves around calculating the length of the adjacent side XY in a right triangle XYZ, where angle Y is 90 degrees, angle X is 42 degrees, and side YZ measures 3.7 cm. The user initially calculated the length using the tangent function, resulting in 4.11 cm, but received feedback indicating the answer was incorrect. It was clarified that the correct answer, rounded to three significant figures, is 4.11 cm, but the exact value is 4.109266305 cm. The discrepancy arose from the website's requirement for precision in significant figures.

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Gringo123
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I have been practising trig on the bb bitesize maths website. It keeps telling me that I have given the wrong answer to the following problem.
Draw a triangle XYZ with Y being a right angle. The angle at X is 42 degrees and the length of YZ is 3.7cm.
The question requires you to find the length of XY (the adjacent side) to 3 s.f.
I did the calculation tan42 = 3.7/XY and came up with a length of 4.11cm. I also tried 4.10cm (without rounding up), but according to the website both answers are wrong.
Can anyone tell me where I am going wrong?
Thanks
 
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It could be that the website is looking for an answer with three significant decimal places, which would be 4.109. My calculator gives the length of the adjacent side as 4.109266305 (cm). To 3 significant figures, this would be 4.11 cm.
 
Thanks a lot Mark. As long as I know I did the right calulation I'm happy!
 

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