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3-Newcomer
February 9, 2023
Question

trigonometric equation formating

  • February 9, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 9184 views

Can anyone tell me the correct syntax for using trigonometric functions?  When I try it, I get an error result that says "missing term or expression".  All help appreciated

4 replies

24-Ruby III
February 9, 2023

1. What version of the program are you using?

2. Please show your example.

21-Topaz II
February 9, 2023

Hi,

Like this:

Capture.JPG

3-Newcomer
February 9, 2023
My equations look just like yours except instead of an answer of 0.7071, I get an error message "missing term or expression"

25-Diamond I
February 9, 2023

As you do not show what you are actually trying we have to stab in the dark 😞

The error message you mention is thrown when you don't provide a function argument (by default you would see a question mark instead of the three dots)

Werner_E_1-1675951843845.png

But as this is very obvious I guess that's not the problem which you experience.

So for sure you would need to show examples of what you are doing and it also may help if you state which kind of Mathcad you are using (real, legacy Mathcad 15 or below or Prime) and which version.

 

3-Newcomer
February 9, 2023
The error message comes after the equal sign. It looks just like your bottom equation but instead of giving the answer of 0.5, it gives the error message. I am using Prime 8.0

25-Diamond I
February 9, 2023

Can you post the failing worksheet or at least a screenshot!?
Have you tried what I show in the second line (pi/6) with the same error?

Have you tried too use the unit "deg" instead of "°" as seen in Terrys answer. You may explicitly type a multiplication after the number as Terry did, but it should not be necessary, just type "deg" after the number. That way you won't see a dot between the two

Werner_E_0-1675983589977.png

Are the letters "sin" upright or italic? When you click somewhere in "sin" and then look at menu Math-Style-Label, do you see "Function" as in the screenshot below or something else? If something else, does it help when you manually change the label to "Function"? Changing it to "Automatic" should work as well.

Werner_E_0-1675984354847.png

Actually I don't think that wrong labelling is the cause as the error message would be something else ("variable undefined") if that would be the case, but without seeing what you actually typed and without being able to play around with your worksheet we still are just stabbing in the dark 😞

 

You sure have typed the normal equal sign and not the fat boolean one which you get with Ctrl-+ !? Guess that could not be the cause, either, as if you use the boolean equal you won't get any error message - Prime would just wait for you to type in the RHS of the equation and tell it what you want to be done with the equation.

 

When you are using the inverse sinus (arcsin, in Prime called asin) and want to see the result in degree rather than the default radian, you unfortunately can't simply type "°" as we can do in real Mathcad. In Prime we get the exact error message you experience. You either have to type "deg" in the unit placeholder or uncomfortably chose the unit degree from the units menu.

Werner_E_1-1675984725831.png

But then you sure did not want the result of the sine function to be displayed in degree as the result isn't an angle anyway.

 

So again just a lot of shots in the dark...

 

Do you experience any problems with the attached worksheet?
It sure will look OK when you just open it as all you see is the last view I had over here. You should let the sheet recalculate (F9 or F5) to see what your installation of Prime thinks of it.

I am using Prime 6 but I don't think that such a severe bug could have found its way in P8 an remained undetected until now.

Here is what you should see, also after recalculation:

Werner_E_0-1675985731299.png

 

And one last try: You didn't do this (putting the angle outside of the parentheses), didn't you?

Werner_E_0-1675985980666.png

 

18-Opal
February 12, 2023

Mine works fine. Please see file which I have not attached.

25-Diamond I
February 12, 2023

@ppal_255687 wrote:

Mine works fine. Please see file which I have not attached.


Your file contained a small clerical error. I have corrected it in the file not attached here.

10-Marble
September 19, 2024

Hello,

I'm having the same problem, I read through the discussion here, make sure I'm using the correct operator, and started a whole new worksheet to make sure there are no interference, but still get a wrong calculation output involving trig: