SIN
Returns the sine of an angle specified in radians.
SIN(number)Arguments
numberThe angle in radians
=SIN(0)Sine of 0 radians is 0
=SIN(PI()/2)Sine of PI/2 (90 degrees) is 1
=SIN(RADIANS(30))Sine of 30 degrees is 0.5
- •Argument must be in radians
- •Result is always between -1 and 1
- •SIN(0) = 0, SIN(PI()/2) = 1
- •Passing an angle in degrees directly to SIN without converting it first - SIN expects radians, so SIN(90) doesn't give the sine of 90 degrees, and RADIANS(90) needs to be used instead
- •Expecting SIN of a common angle to return a perfectly round decimal - floating-point precision can produce results extremely close to an expected value like 1 or 0.5, but not always displayed as a perfectly clean number
- •Confusing SIN with ASIN - SIN takes an angle and returns a ratio, while ASIN takes a ratio and returns an angle, and using the wrong one inverts the intended calculation
Why doesn't SIN(90) give me 1 like the sine of 90 degrees should?
SIN expects its input in radians, not degrees. Use SIN(RADIANS(90)) to correctly calculate the sine of a 90-degree angle.
What's the difference between SIN and ASIN?
SIN takes an angle (in radians) and returns a ratio between -1 and 1. ASIN does the reverse - it takes that ratio and returns the corresponding angle.
Why does SIN sometimes return a tiny number instead of exactly 0?
Floating-point arithmetic can introduce very small precision artifacts for certain angles, like SIN(PI()) returning a number extremely close to, but not exactly, zero.
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