The SIN function returns the sine of a number given in radians.
This function takes a single Number as input. It parses that number in radians and outputs its sine as a Number.
Declaration
SIN(number) -> sine
Parameters
number (required, type: number)
The number to calculate the sine of. This number is parsed in radians.
Return Values
sine (type: number)
The sine of the given number.
Examples
The following example returns the sine of 90. Note that while the sine of 90 degrees is 1, the sine of 90 radians is 0.8939966636005579, and this is the number the SIN function returns:
SIN(90) -> 0.8939966636005579
In order to calculate the sine of a number of degrees, said number must first be converted into radians using the function RADIANS. The following example returns the sine of 90 degrees by first converting 90 degrees into radians and then calculating the sine of the resulting number:
SIN(RADIANS(90)) -> 1
As a unit, the radian is derived from the ratio of the arc length to the radius of a circle, and thus it often makes sense to express radians as multiples of pi. (Many "neat" angles are expressed nicely as multiples of pi – the quarter turn, 90°, is 0.5π radians, and a complete rotation, 360°, is 2π radians.) To do so, the SIN function can be used in tandem with the PI function. The following example, for instance, returns the sine of 2π radians. Note that the output is not exactly 0, but it is extremely close. This is the result of small rounding errors:
SIN(2 * PI()) -> -2.4492935982947064e-16