Menu
Pre-Calc Blogs
Many people don't use or understand radians, because to non-mathematical thinkers radians are written in almost a foreign language. So most people when they don't know what things are wikipedia it. To save time the wikipedia definition is "a unit of angle, equal to an angle at the center of a circle whose arc is equal in length to the radius". What does this really mean? one radian is equal to the length of the radius of a circle. This then relates to the radian circle (not only because the word radian is in it) a radian relates because the radians similar to degrees make up a circle (2pi is 360, pi is 180). Now why does this have any meaning? Since it contains pi doesn't that make it a pain to use? Well no as previously stated 2pi is 360 degrees, well this looks familiar to the circumference formula 2piR now why is this so? Radian circle is a circle placed on the x-y plane with a radius of one and on a circle with a radius of one to make it completely around the circle is 2pi, to find the circumference of a circle that has a smaller or larger circumference you would need to multiply the radius by the circumference of the radian circle. No what is the point aren't degrees more common wouldn't it be easier to just stay with degrees? Well no although it is easier to picture the angle measure radians are more mathematically pure because rather than having to round the decimal, an exact measurement can be discovered by using radians.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLindsay is in Math Class Archives
February 2017
Categories |