Expert: Chanda Walker - 11/18/2008

Question
is (50/tan)a quantity

are (50/tan),,(1/tan 50),,(cot 50),,((tan^-1)50)   one and the same thing  

Answer
(50/tan) is not a proper function.  Tan needs an argument such as

tan(x)

1/tan 50  is a function but is not neatly written it would be better:

1/(tan(50))

it also could be written

(tan(50))^-1

cot 50 should be written

cot(50)

and yes

cot(50) = tan^-1(50)

But none of the other functions are equal to anything else.

Please note

(tan(50))^-1  DOES NOT EQUAL  tan^-1(50)



Hope this helps.