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Trigonometry notation poll


Darros

Which format do you use?  

18 members have voted

  1. 1. Which format do you use?

    • tan⁻¹(x)
      9
    • arctan(x)
      9


Recommended Posts

Posted

Hey there, sorry for making a thread about math if you're one of those people that hates it - but I just wanted to run a quick poll about notation because it's been brought to my attention by a friend that the fact that I use arcsin, arccos, and arctan is weird. I know the inverse notation is clear [cos⁻¹(x) obviously isn't the same as sec(x)] but I've always just preferred using arc notation for my trig. So here's a small poll, which one do you use when you encounter trig?

Posted

Hi mathstudent here, I use arctan etc, as a ^-1 notation really bothers me and confuses me regarding division. In my own quick calculations however when I'm certain division won't come up I'll sometimes use ^-1 to save space/time

Posted

Whenever I've found stuff like this, I mainly use -1, though on some occasions I use arc. It really depends on what the problem itself I'm solving uses.

Posted

I've seen and used both enough times to the point that they're both perfectly fine with me. The one I personally use depends on if I'm writing (^-1) or typing (arc).

However, I usually think of ^-1 when someone says inverse, so I voted for that (plus that's what's on the calculators that I use).

Posted

tan⁻¹(x), mostly because that's how calculators usually format it. Just became habit, really.

Posted

As someone who occasionally tutors pupils in math, I'm annoyed that calculators use the sin⁻¹ notation. It's confusing and unnecessarily so, since arcsin is simply a more clear notation.

Posted

I've always found the tan⁻¹(x) notation to be more clear. For a function F, its inverse is notated F⁻¹. Tan is a function, so it makes sense why inverse tangent is notated tan⁻¹. Of course, that rule isn't really applied for any other common function like addition or multiplication. And my experience with trig problems is fairly limited, I might find arcsin/arccos/arctan better as time goes on.

Posted

I prefer using arctan, but since calculators mostly use tan-1, i'm also used to it

Posted

i love saying arctan so i also type arctan and write arctan

Posted

i intergangeably use both

i tend to use tan^-1 when doing things with a lot of writing and arctan with short stuff

 

also i agree with ike

Posted

i use arctan so i dont have to deal with superscripts; i prefer to keep things in one line if possible

that's also why i'm starting to get into the habit of using exp(...) instead of e^...

Posted

tan inverse>arctan

 

I see arctan a lot in programming stuff though.

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