Cos 56 Degrees

Sin, Cos, Tan, Cot of an Angle
Function
Angle (°)

What is cos 56°?

Answer

cos 56° ≈
0.5592

Angle in radians: 56° = 14π/45. The point of the angle is in quadrant I, where cosine is positive.

≈ — rounded to 4 decimal places. cos 56° can't be written with square roots: 56° is not a multiple of 3°.

P(cos 56°, sin 56°) ≈ (0.5592, 0.8290)

xyOP

P(cos 56°, sin 56°) ≈ (0.5592, 0.8290)

Highlighted: the projection on the x-axis — cosine, x ≈ 0.5592.

All four functions of 56°
FunctionExact valueDecimal
sin 56°—≈ 0.8290
cos 56°—≈ 0.5592
tan 56°—≈ 1.4826
cot 56°—≈ 0.6745

See Also

FAQ

What is cos 56°?

cos 56° ≈ 0.5592

Why does cos 56° have no exact value?

A trigonometric value of a whole number of degrees can be written with square roots only when the angle is a multiple of 3°. 56° is not, so no such exact form exists; the value is used as a decimal: cos 56° ≈ 0.5592.

Why does a calculator show 0.8532 for cos 56?

The calculator is in radian mode (RAD): it takes cos 56 as the cosine of 56 radians, cos 56 rad ≈ 0.8532. Switch it to degrees (DEG): cos 56° ≈ 0.5592. In radians the value is never undefined: π is irrational, so a whole number of radians never lands exactly on an axis.