SIN in Collabora Office: Use Radians and Calculate Vertical Components

• Introduced: documented in Collabora Office 26.04 Help; the original introduction version is not established by the reviewed history.
• Availability: the official SIN reference documents support in Calc’s 26.04 desktop manual.
• Scope: this evidence does not establish identical behavior in Collabora Online, mobile clients or older releases.
• Checked: October 14, 2026 against the captured 26.04 manual. Examples were calculated independently; no native Collabora execution was performed.

=SIN(number)

number is the angle in radians. For degrees use:

=SIN(RADIANS(degrees))

The word degrees in this schematic formula represents your value or cell reference. The concrete examples below can be entered directly. Setting a cell’s display format to show a degree symbol does not convert its stored number to radians.

Sine is a ratio for a right triangle and a vertical coordinate on the unit circle. Its mathematical values lie between −1 and 1. The sign depends on the angle, so a negative result is not automatically an error.

Enter degree values 0, 30, 90, 150, 270 in A2:A6. In B2 enter and fill down:

=SIN(RADIANS(A2))

Expected B2:B6: approximately 0, 0.5, 1, 0.5, −1. The equal results at 30 and 150 degrees show that different angles can have the same sine.

For a direct radian control, =SIN(PI()/6) is approximately 0.5. PI and RADIANS express the units explicitly instead of relying on a decimal approximation to π.

For an illustrative circle of radius 10 and angle 30 degrees measured counterclockwise from the positive horizontal axis:

=10*SIN(RADIANS(30))

Expected result: 5. The sine is the vertical component per unit radius; multiplying by ten scales it to the circle’s radius units.

At −30 degrees the corresponding formula returns approximately −5. The negative sign indicates a position below the horizontal axis in this coordinate convention. It does not mean a physical length must be negative.

For the horizontal component, use COS with the same angle and radius. Keeping both formulas in the same angular units is essential.

Compare:

=SIN(30)
=SIN(RADIANS(30))

Expected results: approximately −0.988031624 and 0.5. The first formula treats 30 as radians, not degrees. Both calculations can be numerically valid, but only one matches a 30-degree input specification.

Label angle columns with their units. A workbook can silently produce plausible numbers when one column uses degrees and another uses radians.

For an illustrative repeating model with center 20 and amplitude 3:

=20+3*SIN(RADIANS(A2))

Using degree inputs 0, 90, 180, 270, expected outputs are approximately 20, 23, 20, 17. The center sets the vertical offset, while the amplitude controls the distance above or below that center.

The model is a constructed numerical example, not a fitted prediction. Do not assume that real observations follow a sine curve merely because they rise and fall.

Sine repeats every full turn. =SIN(RADIANS(450)) is approximately 1, matching 90 degrees plus 360. Very large angle magnitudes can magnify numerical argument-reduction issues, so reduce or validate unusually large inputs when precision matters.

ASIN returns a principal angle, not every possible angle with a given sine. =DEGREES(ASIN(SIN(RADIANS(150)))) is approximately 30, not 150. Sine alone does not preserve the quadrant information needed to reconstruct an arbitrary original angle.

Values mathematically equal to zero may appear as tiny residuals because π and trigonometric operations are represented numerically. Choose a tolerance suitable for the task rather than demanding exact equality after several calculations. Rounding a displayed answer is different from changing the underlying value used downstream.

Before using an imported formula, check a familiar angle, its negative and an angle outside the first quadrant. Those controls detect unit and sign mistakes more reliably than inspecting just one plausible result.

• Collabora Office 26.04 Help: SIN — direct product-specific definition and syntax.
• Editorial testing standards.

The examples use semicolon argument separators. Displayed decimals are rounded expected values, not exact native outputs. Mathematical identities are explanatory calculations; product support is limited to the cited documentation scope.