As a marketer, I spend a lot of time working with data in Google Sheets. Whether I'm analyzing website traffic or calculating ROI, Sheets is my go-to tool for data analysis. And one of the most powerful features in Sheets is the ability to use formulas to manipulate and analyze data.
In this article, I'm going to dive into one of the most useful formula functions in Sheets: RADIANS. If you've never heard of RADIANS before or you're not sure how to use it, don't worry – I've got you covered.
RADIANS are a unit of measurement used in trigonometry to measure angles. In Google Sheets, the RADIANS function takes an angle in degrees and converts it to radians.
Why is this useful? Well, many of the trigonometric functions in Sheets – like SIN, COS, and TAN – require their input to be in radians. So if you want to use one of these functions to calculate something like the sine of an angle, you'll need to convert the angle from degrees to radians first using the RADIANS function.
Using the RADIANS function in Sheets is very straightforward. The syntax for the function is:
=RADIANS(angle)
Where "angle" is the angle you want to convert from degrees to radians.
Let's say you have an angle of 45 degrees that you want to convert to radians. Here's how you would use the RADIANS function:
=RADIANS(45)
The result of this formula would be 0.7853981634, which is the equivalent of 45 degrees in radians.
Of course, you can also use cell references in the RADIANS function if you have your angle data stored in a spreadsheet. Here's an example:
=RADIANS(A1)
Assuming your angle data is stored in cell A1, this formula would convert the angle in A1 from degrees to radians.
As I mentioned earlier, the RADIANS function is most commonly used in conjunction with other trigonometric functions in Sheets, like SIN, COS, and TAN.
Let's say you have an angle of 30 degrees and you want to calculate the sine of that angle. Here's how you would use the RADIANS and SIN functions together:
=SIN(RADIANS(30))
The result of this formula would be 0.5, which is the sine of 30 degrees.
You can use the same approach with the COS and TAN functions. Here's an example with the COS function:
=COS(RADIANS(60))
This formula would calculate the cosine of 60 degrees, which is 0.5.
So that's a quick overview of the RADIANS function in Google Sheets. While it may seem like a small part of Sheets, it's a powerful tool for working with trigonometric functions and angles. Whether you're a marketer or a math student, understanding how to use RADIANS can make your life a lot easier.
If you're just getting started with Sheets, I highly recommend taking some time to learn about the different formula functions available. The more comfortable you are with Sheets, the more powerful your data analysis can become.
