- #1
W3bbo
- 31
- 0
According to Wolfram's MathWorld, the Inverse Tangent (ArcTan) is a multivalued function.
...but the plot on their website (and the one I just did with my copy of Mathematica) shows it's a one-to-one function.
Okay, so it does say the ArcTan[] function returns the Principal Value of inverse Tan, but I still don't get it...
Moving on to complex numbers, in Mathematica the Arg[] function is apparently an alias for ArcTan[x,y] (rather than ArcTan[x], since it determines if Pi should be added to it). This is embarassing at this level to ask, but how can I do what Mathematica's ArcTan[x,y] does with my numeric calculator? So far we've been told to sketch the Argand diagram and determine which quadrant it's into see how we should use Inverse Tan, but I'm looking for something a little faster, I'm not keen on "visual" methods.
Thanks
...but the plot on their website (and the one I just did with my copy of Mathematica) shows it's a one-to-one function.
Okay, so it does say the ArcTan[] function returns the Principal Value of inverse Tan, but I still don't get it...
Moving on to complex numbers, in Mathematica the Arg[] function is apparently an alias for ArcTan[x,y] (rather than ArcTan[x], since it determines if Pi should be added to it). This is embarassing at this level to ask, but how can I do what Mathematica's ArcTan[x,y] does with my numeric calculator? So far we've been told to sketch the Argand diagram and determine which quadrant it's into see how we should use Inverse Tan, but I'm looking for something a little faster, I'm not keen on "visual" methods.
Thanks