What to do? Problems with TI-84 Plus Silver Edition Calculator?

Question

I am in algebra 2 and have been doing some geometry review problems, since it is the beginning of the school year. For one problem, I had to use the sine function. I had to find the length of a triangle hypotenuse. To do this, I had to find what x equaled when

sin 42/x=sin 38/10. My calculator gave a negative value for x, and I know this is impossible because of a. logic and b. I checked on another calculator. Has any one else encountered this problem, and if so, what did you do?

Answer 1

you should check and make sure your calculator is in radian mode instead of degree mode

Answer 2

Make sure that you're calculator is set in degree mode. Radians are a different form of numbers equivalent to degrees that are used in upper level math courses. Put your calculator in degree mode, and you should get the right answer of 10.86848265 degrees. Hope that helps!