See Chaos Theory in your Calculator in 3 easy steps !

[Mod]

1.Set your calculator to radians. ( It can be Windows Calculator set to scientific mode)
2.Type any number
3.Press tangent function button as much as you like.

Depending on what you type initialy, you can see the succession of numbers to stable, or vary like crazy ! ;)

What do you think people ?

[poursoul]

did it, typed in 86 i think, clicked tan about 12 times and it went to zero.

wtf.

[UDawg]

Originally posted by poursoul
did it, typed in 86 i think, clicked tan about 12 times and it went to zero.

wtf.

Of course it will. I guess that theory proved there is order, :p

[Mod]

Originally posted by poursoul
did it, typed in 86 i think, clicked tan about 12 times and it went to zero.

wtf.

You forgot to set it to radians.

[UDawg]

My index finger hurts now. Can I stop? :(

[b00bie]

The point of this would be??? :confused:

[DaveChambers]

Little math lesson here :)

Well normally when in Radians you speak with pi terms which deals with the unit circle. 2 pi = 360 degrees so you figure if you say a term such as 2pi. You get 1 revolution around the circle and end up at point (1,0). Then you figure in tangent which is sin/cos or y/x. So you can take 0 and divide it by 1 and come out with 0.

Another situation would be with a different number lets say, pi/4. You go around the unit circle a quarter turn. So that leaves you at point (0,1). So again you take y/x and come out to 1/0. Which is undefined so the tangent cease's to exist. When graphed on a coordinate plane you end up with a vertical asymtote at every undefined point at pi/2 and 2pi/3. So that value does not exist.

Dont know if that helps you understand the theory behind it, if not atleast you learned some trig :)

[UDawg]

I just barely got by in trig class. Thanks for the horrible memories. :(

[de><ta]

I dont think it will vary unpredictably no matter what number you plug in as radians (unless of course it is complex in which it being a radian does not make sense).

The tan as nvidiot pointed out is sin/cos or y/x. Another name for it could be the partial derivative. So if you take any radian value where the cos tends towards 0 you start getting more different values as you apply tan to it (eventually tends to inifinite different values before you get repetition). But when cos tends to 0 the tan is technically undefined.