ArcTan?

[SigepBrandon]

I submitted a homework a few weeks ago and one of the answers was arctan (1/sqrt(2)). the radian approximation I wrote down was .62, but the proff made a comment that he did not want me to approximate. I tried deducing an exact angle with Arctan being equal to Cos/Sin but haven't gotten anywhere. Any Advice?

 

[DrSteve]

Are you sure your professor didn't just want you to leave the answer as arctan (1/sqrt(2))?

 

[SigepBrandon]

Possibly. I'm not very confident in my algebraic abilities, so assumed there was something i was not seeing, just thought I'd ask the group as it's an online class, and i really don't know who the person making the remarks are on my assignments-

Thanks for reading Dr. Steve!

 

[wjm11]

I submitted a homework a few weeks ago and one of the answers was arctan (1/sqrt(2)). the radian approximation I wrote down was .62, but the proff made a comment that he did not want me to approximate. I tried deducing an exact angle with Arctan being equal to Cos/Sin but haven't gotten anywhere. Any Advice?

This is just a wild guess, but is it possible the problem was actually "arctan (1/sqrt(3))"? If so, this would represent an angle in a 30-60-90 triangle, which is very commonly used in trig classes (especially when learning the "unit circle"). The ratios of the sides are 1:2sqrt(3)). Arctan (1/sqrt(3)) = pi/6 radians (an exact solution).

 

[SigepBrandon]

Hey Wjm. Thanks for your input, but unfortunately no. Everything was given.. It was from a problem changing Cartesian cords to spherical with theta = InvTan(y/x). the original (x,y,z) = (sqrt(2), 1, 1) so I just plugged in the variables (x,y) and struggled before giving the approximation which the prof didn't like.

Just thought I'd throw it out there to see if anyone had any ideas. . . but I do appreciate the thought!