What's the difference between degree and radian. I know it's important to go on degree when calculating tangents and sines and cosines but what switch actually happens?
+33616 Degrees and radians are both measures of angle. 360° = 2pi radians.
You can use radians with tan, sin and cos, but if you use a calculator you have to make sure it is in radian mode to do this.
There is a very big difference between degrees and radians.
Degrees are an arbitrary way of splitting a circle into 360 equal segments. Note the word 'arbitrary'. Degrees are not an absolute way of measuring angles and for this reason do not work very well for more advanced maths.Radians are an absolute measure.
Why? Because one radian is defined as the angle which subtends a length of arc on a circle which is EXACTLY ONE RADIUS in length.Put simply,if I draw an arc on a circle ,and that arc is exactly the length of the circle's radius,the angle that the arc makes within the circle is defined as one radian. Can you see that by measuring an angle in this way,ie by using the properties of the circle itself rather than just deciding to split it up into a number of abtitrary pieces it is an absolute measure?
So,converting radians to degrees ; how many arc lengths of a circle make up the circumference? 2pi,since the circumference of a circle is 2pi times the radius.
So 2 pi radians equals 360 degrees.
