Unusual Math with incorrect results?
Question: My python interpreter is acting funky when I use the math.cos() and math.sin()
function. For example, if I do this on my calculator:

    
    
    cos(35)*15+9 = 21.28728066
    sin(35)*15+9 = 17.60364655
    

But when I do this on python (both 3.2 and 2.7)

    
    
    >>> import math
    >>> math.cos(35)*15+9
    -4.5553830763726015
    
    >>> import math
    >>> math.sin(35)*15+9
    2.577259957557734
    

Why does this happen?

EDIT: How do you change the Radian in Python to degrees, just in case?


Answer: This is being caused by the fact that you are using _degrees_  
and the trigonometric functions expect _radians_ as input:  
`sin(radians)`

The description for `sin` is:

    
    
    sin(x)
        Return the sine of x (measured in radians).
    

In Python, you can convert degrees to radians with the `math.radians`
function.

  
So if you do this with your input:

    
    
    >>> math.sin(math.radians(35)) * 15 + 9
    17.60364654526569
    

it gives the same result as your calculator.

