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In Octave

octave.exe:4> asin(1/2) ans =  0.52360 

is it possible to get the result in form of:

ans = pi/6 

It seems not possible with format function, but may be there are any tricks.

3 Answers 3

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Try using "format rat". "rat" stands for rational, which puts answers in fractional terms. Using "format rat" puts ALL terms in fractional terms (unless you switch back to a different format such as "format g"), as opposed to rats([expression]), which (I assume - I've never used that) only puts [expression] in rational terms.

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An alternative might be to convert into units of $\pi$ explicitly, and then seek a rational approximation:

> rats(asin(1/2) / pi)                                                                                                                                     ans =       1/6 
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I assume it's the same as with Matlab, where you would do sym(asin(1/2)).

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    This relies on the symbolic toolbox in matlab, so probably you will need a package like described here: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/128812/is-there-a-symbolic-math-package-for-octave2012-11-21