Cos 86 Degrees

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

What is cos 86°?

Answer

cos 86° ≈
0.0698

Angle in radians: 86° = 43π/90. The point of the angle is in quadrant I, where cosine is positive.

≈ — rounded to 4 decimal places. cos 86° can't be written with square roots: 86° is not a multiple of 3°.

P(cos 86°, sin 86°) ≈ (0.0698, 0.9976)

xyOP

P(cos 86°, sin 86°) ≈ (0.0698, 0.9976)

Highlighted: the projection on the x-axis — cosine, x ≈ 0.0698.

All four functions of 86°
FunctionExact valueDecimal
sin 86°—≈ 0.9976
cos 86°—≈ 0.0698
tan 86°—≈ 14.3007
cot 86°—≈ 0.0699

See Also

FAQ

What is cos 86°?

cos 86° ≈ 0.0698

Why does cos 86° 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°. 86° is not, so no such exact form exists; the value is used as a decimal: cos 86° ≈ 0.0698.

Why does a calculator show −0.3837 for cos 86?

The calculator is in radian mode (RAD): it takes cos 86 as the cosine of 86 radians, cos 86 rad ≈ −0.3837. Switch it to degrees (DEG): cos 86° ≈ 0.0698. In radians the value is never undefined: π is irrational, so a whole number of radians never lands exactly on an axis.