[spacefire5458]

What is the meaning of tan?
:)

[happylady123]

I guess it's getting a few shades darker then you are already.

[galactus]

1. To convert to leather.

2. To thrash or whip

3. A yellowish-brown color

4. To make the skin darker from exposure to the sun.

5. An abbreviation for tangent


Take your pick.

[Capuchin]

I guess you mean tanning of humans due to exposure to the sun.

Your skin is stimulated by the UV light from the sun to make more melanin. UV is damaging, and melanin absorbs it, so it's a reaction to protect your body from the UV. It just happens to make you sexy and brown, too ;)

[sGt HarDKorE]

Umm he's talking about tan from math, that is why its in the math section =p. Well I forget how tan is created but its Tan(x)=opposite/hypotenuse.

SOH CAH TOA

[Pook_Myster]

Nice work... beat me to it. We used to learn it by SOH CAH TOA too...

[Capuchin]

Oh right. It means tangent :)

It's defined as:

[rudi_in]

Umm hes talking about tan from math, that is why its in the math section =p. Well I forget how tan is created but its Tan(x)=opposite/hypotenuse.

SOH CAH TOA

Actually, TAN(x) = opposite over adjacent as your little memory helper would indicate.
SIN(x) = opposite over hypotenuse
COS(x) = adjacent over hypotenuse

[sGt HarDKorE]

Ahh good eye, I should have noticed that when I typed TOA

[retsoksirhc]

If you want to be even more specific, you can use the unit circle, by drawing a circle on a graph, with center at 0, and radius of 1.

tan(z) would be the value of y/x on the circle, at the point Z degrees around the circle, starting at (1,0), where x and y are the point ON the circle, (x,y)
So like... tan(0), the value of (x,y) would be (1,0), because you didn't move at all around the circle. y/x=0/1, so tan(0)=0