How do I plug the equation " arcsin×11/12×sin(73) " into a calculator so that it equals 61 degrees?

[d1ner]

Im currently testing out of geometry and am using a website called Khan Academy to study. I was given the triangle shown in the picture telling me to solve for B, and i solved it with the help of another website which had me plug in the values i knew and then had me cross multiply, making the equation = 11(sin73) = 12(sinB). I then isolated B so it was by itself, making the problem B= arcsin 11/12 sin(73). The khan academy site told me the answer was 61, however i wanted to figure out how to put it into the calculator and get the answer myself so i knew how to do it on the exam. However, no matter how i typed it in it came to a long negative decimal. How should i put it into a calculator so that it gets the right answer? Or did i make a mistake while solving?
Thanks,
Diane

 

[Deleted member 4993]

Im currently testing out of geometry and am using a website called Khan Academy to study. I was given the triangle shown in the picture telling me to solve for B, and i solved it with the help of another website which had me plug in the values i knew and then had me cross multiply, making the equation = 11(sin73) = 12(sinB). I then isolated B so it was by itself, making the problem B= arcsin 11/12 sin(73). The khan academy site told me the answer was 61, however i wanted to figure out how to put it into the calculator and get the answer myself so i knew how to do it on the exam. However, no matter how i typed it in it came to a long negative decimal. How should i put it into a calculator so that it gets the right answer? Or did i make a mistake while solving?
Thanks,
Diane

Don't plugin everything in one-step!

First calculate sin(73°). What do you get?

 

[Harry_the_cat]

Make sure your calculaor is in DEGREE mode.

 

[Dr.Peterson]

It depends in part on what kind of calculator you have. On many, you can essentially just type in "arcsin(11/12*sin(73))=". On others, you have to enter numbers before functions, so you'd do "73 sin * 11 / 12 = arcsin", or some variant of that.

I recommend reading the manual for your calculator, which may have examples like this.

Now, the answer I got was 61.236415687184388469965388575192; if you got that, you are right. They must have asked for the answer rounded to the nearest degree.

If you got a negative number, then quite likely you have your calculator set to radians instead of degrees. When I do that, I get -0.66921984255902926145990090062293. Is that what you got?

Note that you can get help more efficiently if you actually show your work and your answer, so people don't have to guess!

 

[d1ner]

Putting it in degree mode made it get 61 degrees for me, thank you! I had originally set it to radians by accident. Thank you so much for the help.

 

[Harry_the_cat]

Learn from that mistake! Always check the angle mode when dealing with trig functions.