I was given a triangle:
side opposite of angle A: unknown, referred to as L
side adjacent of angle A: 11'
hypotenuse: 14'
I have to find the cosine of angle A, the degrees, and the length of "L", opposite angle A, in feet.
L is equal to 8.6602, which in feet is 8'-7 7/16. I did the math, and got angle A= 38 degrees
(my instructor wants length in feet-inches-fraction, I'm in pipefitters school. He also doesn't want minutes or seconds for the angles)
However, when I did the cosine function, I ended up with .999905 We are supposed to round decimals to the fourth place. However, that leaves me with
.9999
which should round up to
1
But...what I'm wondering is can I even have a whole number for a cosine, or should I leave it at .9999?
If .9999 is the mathematically correct answer, I need to know why, in order to defend it in class. If 1 is the correct answer, then I'd just like to know why. However, I asked Google and haven't been able to get an answer that I understand.