Whats+Your+Angle?


 * Title: What's Your Angle?**


 * Primary Authors: Ryan and Maureen**


 * Contributing Authors: TJ and Amanda**

The goal for this lab was to use as many unique methods as possible to determine the angle of an incline ramp. A total of 3 different methods were used. Using those methods, it was discovered that the angle was 20°.
 * Abstract:**

In this lab we will be determining different ways we can find the measure of an angle. There are ways to determine the measure by using right angle trigonometry. We used different methods that would in the end find the angle we were searching for. We set up the ramp and kept it in the same position for each method.
 * Introduction:**

First, the ramp was set-up in such a way that it would not need to be moved later on, so that the data across all methods would be the same. The ramp itself was 50 cm long, and was set up in such a way so that it constructed a right triangle, with itself as the hypotenuse, with the counter-top (See Figure 1). A meter stick was used to measure the horizontal and vertical sides.
 * Method:**



Starting the first method, a gravity protractor was used in order to measure the elevation of the angle. By obtaining the angle, it was easier to move on to the second method, which used a combination mathematical trigonometric functions and the side lengths to find the angle.

From the use of the first method, the gravity protractor, it was discovered that the angle measured 20°. This angle measure was then repeated in the second method. Using the measurements of the sides of the triangle, Sin, Cos, and Tan were all used to find and confirm the angle measure.
 * Results:**

The equation for Sin was Sin q =17/50. 17/50=.34, which when put into inverse Sin, gave a value of 19.87, which was rounded up to 20. For Cos, almost the exact same procedure was followed, except with 17/50 being replaced with 47/50, which was then put into inverse Cos, and then gave a value of 19.95, again which was rounded up to 20. Tan was also done very similar, with the value of 17/47 being put into inverse Tan. 19.89 was the value of the equation which, although was lower than the other 2, was still rounded up to 20.
 * Sin || 17/50 || 19.9 || 20 ||
 * Cos || 47/50 || 19.95 || 20 ||
 * Tan || 17/47 || 19.89 || 20 ||

Some error was encountered during both the data collection stage, and the analysis stage. At one point, the ramp was hit slightly, which caused a slight drop. While it was thought to have been corrected, it is very possible that it was still off. The rounding of numbers in the analysis stage also caused some minor issues, as seen with Tangent. It was more than .1 off of the actual angle value. Even though it did not ultimately affect the work done, it was still much further off than anyone would have liked.

After using a multitude of methods and equations, it was determined that the angle of the inclined ramp equaled 20 °.
 * Conclusion:**