Tan 17 Degrees

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

What is tan 17°?

Answer

tan 17° ≈
0.3057

Angle in radians: 17° = 17π/180. The point of the angle is in quadrant I, where tangent is positive.

≈ — rounded to 4 decimal places. tan 17° can't be written with square roots: 17° is not a multiple of 3°.

tan 17° = sin 17° / cos 17° ≈ 0.3057

xyOP

P(cos 17°, sin 17°) ≈ (0.9563, 0.2924)

T(1, tan 17°) ≈ (1, 0.3057) — where line OP meets the line x = 1.

All four functions of 17°
FunctionExact valueDecimal
sin 17°—≈ 0.2924
cos 17°—≈ 0.9563
tan 17°—≈ 0.3057
cot 17°—≈ 3.2709

See Also

FAQ

What is tan 17°?

tan 17° ≈ 0.3057

Why does tan 17° 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°. 17° is not, so no such exact form exists; the value is used as a decimal: tan 17° ≈ 0.3057.

Why does a calculator show 3.4939 for tan 17?

The calculator is in radian mode (RAD): it takes tan 17 as the tangent of 17 radians, tan 17 rad ≈ 3.4939. Switch it to degrees (DEG): tan 17° ≈ 0.3057. In radians the value is never undefined: π is irrational, so a whole number of radians never lands exactly on an axis.