SIN

Return the sine of an angle. The angle is in radians; convert degrees with RADIANS first.

Syntax

SIN(number)

Argument	Required	Description
`number`	Required	The angle, in radians.

Examples

Every example below was executed against VisiGrid engine 0.51.0 — not transcribed from another vendor's documentation. Reproduce any of them with vgrid calc.

Formula	Result	Notes
`=SIN(PI()/2)`	`1`	A quarter turn.
`=SIN(RADIANS(30))`	`0.50`	Thirty degrees, converted to radians first.
`=SIN(30)`	`-0.99`	Thirty radians, not thirty degrees — the most common mistake with this function.
`=SIN(PI())`	`0.00`	Not exactly zero. See below.

Radians, not degrees

Every trigonometric function here takes radians, as in Excel and Sheets. Passing degrees does not produce an error — SIN(30) returns a perfectly valid number, just the sine of thirty radians. Wrap degree values in RADIANS:

=SIN(RADIANS(30))  → 0.50

Why SIN(PI()) shows 0.00

π cannot be stored exactly, so SIN(PI()) is the sine of a number very slightly off π — about 0.0000000000000001. The cell shows 0.00 rather than 0, which is the tell that a tiny residue is there.

It rarely matters. Comparisons with = allow for rounding at the fifteenth significant figure, so the residue does not break a test:

=SIN(PI())=0  → TRUE

Excel compatibility

Matches Excel. Angles are in radians.