Radians are a natural unit of measure. The length of the arc subtended by a
central angle of one radian on a unit circle is one unit long. A full
rotation is 2*Pi radians (as an angle measure and as the length of the
circumference of a unit circle).
Hope this helps.
Stefan Baratto
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin Kalmar [SMTP:MKalmar@fcc.cc.md.us]
> Sent: Monday, November 01, 1999 12:22 PM
> To: Mathedcc@archives.math.utk.edu
> Subject: [MATHEDCC] Why radians?
>
> When students ask (not often enough) why do we need to measure angles in
> radians, I know of no other answer than it makes things very convenient in
> calculus. This is fine for my calculus students who can see what the
> derivatives of trig functions would look like without radians, but what
> other answer can I give my pre-calculus students?
>
> Does anyone know of other good reasons for using radians?
>
> Does anyone know the history of radian measure? Who first used it and why?
>
> Martin Kalmar
> Frederick Community College
> Frederick, Md.
> mkalmar@fcc.cc.md.us
>
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