How do you evaluate arccos(1/2) without a calculator?

1 Answer
Feb 14, 2017

60^@

Explanation:

arccos(1/2) means give me the angle that gives a cos(1/2).

If you look at a trig circle in the first quadrant, the angle with a cos(1/2) is 60^@. This is found in the first quadrant because of the restricted domain and range of the function.

The graph of f(x) = arccos(x) has domain:[-1,1], & range: [0, pi]
graph{arccos(x) [-5.687, 5.413, -1.287, 4.263]}