Cos 81 Degrees

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

What is cos 81°?

Answer

cos 81° ≈
0.1564

Angle in radians: 81° = 9π/20. The point of the angle is in quadrant I, where cosine is positive.

≈ — rounded to 4 decimal places. An exact form of cos 81° in square roots exists, but it is unwieldy — nested radicals.

P(cos 81°, sin 81°) ≈ (0.1564, 0.9877)

xyOP

P(cos 81°, sin 81°) ≈ (0.1564, 0.9877)

Highlighted: the projection on the x-axis — cosine, x ≈ 0.1564.

All four functions of 81°
FunctionExact valueDecimal
sin 81°—≈ 0.9877
cos 81°—≈ 0.1564
tan 81°—≈ 6.3138
cot 81°—≈ 0.1584

See Also

FAQ

What is cos 81°?

cos 81° ≈ 0.1564

Is there an exact value of cos 81°?

Yes: 81° is a multiple of 3°, and the values of such angles can be written with square roots — but the expression is unwieldy, with nested radicals built from the values of 18° and 15° (3° = 18° − 15°). In practice the decimal is used: cos 81° ≈ 0.1564.

Why does a calculator show 0.7767 for cos 81?

The calculator is in radian mode (RAD): it takes cos 81 as the cosine of 81 radians, cos 81 rad ≈ 0.7767. Switch it to degrees (DEG): cos 81° ≈ 0.1564. In radians the value is never undefined: π is irrational, so a whole number of radians never lands exactly on an axis.