Subject: Re: [HM] Radian Measure
From: Dave Cohen (dcohen@ucla.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 06 2000 - 11:50:28 EST
In a chapter on trigonometry in a precalculus book I wrote some years ago,
I included the following quotes from "Nature" magazine.
--warm regards from cold and rainly Los Angeles
dave cohen
"I wrote to him [i.e., to Alexander J. Ellis, in 1874], and he agreed
at once for the form 'radian,' on the ground that it could be viewed
as a contraction for 'radial angle'..."
--Thomas Muir in a letter appearing in the April 7, 1910 "Nature"
"I shall be very pleased to send Dr. Muir a copy of my father's
examination questions of June, 1873, containing the word 'radian.'
...It thus appears that 'radian' was thought of independently by
Dr. Muir and my father, and, what is really more important than the
exact form of the name, they both independently thought of the necessity
of giving a name to the unit-angle."
--James Thomson in a letter appearing in the June 16, 1910 "Nature"
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