C acos()

The acos() function takes a single argument (1 ≥ x ≥ -1), and returns the arc cosine in radians. Mathematically, acos(x) = cos-1(x).

The acos() function is included in <math.h> header file.

acos() Prototype

double acos(double x);

To find arc cosine of type int, float or long double, you can explicitly convert the type to double using cast operator.

 int x = 0;
 double result;
 result = acos(double(x));

Also, two functions acosf() and acosl() were introduced in C99 to work specifically with type float and long double respectively.

float acosf(float x);
long double acosl(long double x);

acos() Parameter

The acos() function takes a single argument in the range of [-1, +1]. It's because the value of cosine is in the range of 1 and -1.

acos() Return Value

The acos() functions returns the value in range of [0.0, π] in radians. If the parameter passed to the acos() function is less than -1 or greater than 1, the function returns NaN (not a number).

Example 1: acos() function with different parameters

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
    // constant PI is defined
    const double PI =  3.1415926;
    double x, result;

    x =  -0.5;
    result = acos(x);
    printf("Inverse of cos(%.2f) = %.2lf in radians\n", x, result);

    // converting radians to degree
    result = acos(x)*180/PI;
    printf("Inverse of cos(%.2f) = %.2lf in degrees\n", x, result);

    // paramter not in range
    x = 1.2;
    result = acos(x);
    printf("Inverse of cos(%.2f) = %.2lf", x, result);

    return 0;
}

Output

Inverse of cos(-0.50) = 2.09 in radians
Inverse of cos(-0.50) = 120.00 in degrees
Inverse of cos(1.20) = nan

Example 2: acosf() and acosl() function

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
int main()
{
    float fx, facosx;
    long double lx, ldacosx;

    // arc cosine of type float
    fx = -0.505405;
    facosx = acosf(fx);

    // arc cosine of type long double
    lx = -0.50540593;
    ldacosx = acosf(lx);

    printf("acosf(x) = %f in radians\n", facosx);
    printf("acosl(x) = %Lf in radians", ldacosx);

    return 0;
}

Output

acosf(x) = 2.100648 in radians
acosl(x) = 2.100649 in radians