Python math.tan() Method

The Python math.tan() method is used to calculate the tangent value of an angle in radians. Mathematically, the tangent function is defined as the ratio of the opposite side of the given angle to the adjacent side of the given angle in a right-angled triangle.

The most commonly used tangent values are of angles 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90 degrees. The tangent function range is all real numbers. This method raises a TypeError whenever we pass anything but a floating-point number as an argument to it.

Note − This function is not accessible directly, so we need to import math module and then we need to call this function using math static object.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of Python math.tan() method −

math.tan(x)

Parameters

  • x − This must be a numeric value.

Return Value

This method returns a real number, which represents the tangent of the angle.

Example

The following example shows the usage of the Python math.tan() method. Here, we are trying to pass the standard tangent angles and find their trigonometric tangent ratios using this method.

import math
print ("tan(3) : ",  math.tan(3))
print ("tan(-3) : ",  math.tan(-3))
print ("tan(0) : ",  math.tan(0))
print ("tan(math.pi) : ",  math.tan(math.pi))
print ("tan(math.pi/2) : ",  math.tan(math.pi/2))
print ("tan(math.pi/4) : ",  math.tan(math.pi/4))

When we run above program, it produces following result −

tan(3) :  -0.142546543074
tan(-3) :  0.142546543074
tan(0) :  0.0
tan(math.pi) :  -1.22460635382e-16
tan(math.pi/2) :  1.63317787284e+16
tan(math.pi/4) :  1.0

Example

Not just the standard angles, this method can also be used to find the tangent ratios for non-standard angles.

In this example, we are creating multiple number objects that hold non-standard angles in radians. These values are passed as arguments to this method in order to find their resultant tangent ratios.

import math
# If the tangent angle is pi
x = 5.48
tangent = math.tan(x)
print("The tangent value of x is:", tangent)
# If the tangent angle is pi/2
x = 1.34
tangent = math.tan(x)
print("The tangent value of x is:", tangent)
# If the tangent angle is 0
x = 0.78
tangent = math.tan(x)
print("The tangent value of x is:", tangent)

While executing the above code we get the following output −

The tangent value of x is: -1.0362224007393084
The tangent value of x is: 4.255617891739467
The tangent value of x is: 0.989261536876605

Example

Even though complex numbers are still considered as numbers, this method only accepts real numbers as arguments.

Let us look at scenario where we pass complex numbers as arguments to the tangent() method. The method raises a TypeError.

import math
# If the tangent angle is a complex number
x = 12-11j
tangent = math.tan(x)
print("The tangent value of x is:", tangent)

Following is an output of the above code −

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Lenovo\Desktop\untitled.py", line 4, in <module>
    tangent = math.tan(x)
TypeError: must be real number, not complex

Example

We can use the math.radians() method to convert an angle in degrees and pass it as an argument to the tan() method.

In the following example, we are creating a number object that holds a tangent angle in degrees. Since, the tan() method takes arguments in radians, we can call the radians() method on this object to convert it into the corresponding radian value. We will then pass this radian value as an argument to this method and find its tangent ratio.

import math
# Take the tangent angle in degrees
x = 60
# Convert it into radians using math.radians() function
rad = math.radians(x)
# Find the tangent value using tan() method
tangent = math.tan(rad)
# Display the tangent ratio
print("The tangent value of x is:", tangent)

Output of the above code is as follows −

The tangent value of x is: 1.7320508075688767
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