Practical Considerations
For angles near 0 and π, arccosine is ill-conditioned and will thus calculate the angle with reduced accuracy in a computer implementation (due to the limited number of digits). Similarly, arcsine is inaccurate for angles near −π/2 and π/2. To achieve full accuracy for all angles, arctangent or atan2 should be used for the implementation.
Read more about this topic: Inverse Trigonometric Functions
Famous quotes containing the word practical:
“War-making is one of the few activities that people are not supposed to view realistically; that is, with an eye to expense and practical outcome. In all-out war, expenditure is all-out, unprudentwar being defined as an emergency in which no sacrifice is excessive.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)