Degrees instead of radians

[Max]

Hello,

I'd like to pass degrees to trigonometric functions.. is it possible to make
maxima think in degrees so I don't have to think in radians? I currently
use /180*%PI on every angle.. would be nice if there was a better way. I
couldn't find anything in the manual.

thanks,
Max

[Stavros Macrakis]

Post by Max
I'd like to pass degrees to trigonometric functions.. is it possible to make
maxima think in degrees so I don't have to think in radians?

The simplest way is to define your own trig functions as follows:

sind(d):=sin(d*%pi/180)$
asind(x)=asin(x)*180/%pi$

etc.

But this means that when you type sind(34), Maxima will display it as
sin(17/90*%pi), which might not be what you want.

There are in principle ways around this, but they are complicated and
probably not worth it.

-s

[Max]

Post by Stavros Macrakis
sind(d):=sin(d*%pi/180)$
But this means that when you type sind(34), Maxima will display it as
sin(17/90*%pi), which might not be what you want.
There are in principle ways around this, but they are complicated and
probably not worth it.

oh well.. :-) I guess I'll stick with radians then. I was hoping that there
would be some parameter that I could simply set to deg or rad.

Max