Difference between revisions of "Radians"
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Most people are familiar with the use of ''degrees'' to measure the size of an angle. A right angle is 90 degrees, a full circle is 360 degrees, and so on. | Most people are familiar with the use of ''degrees'' to measure the size of an angle. A right angle is 90 degrees, a full circle is 360 degrees, and so on. | ||
A ''radian'' is simply a different unit used to measure angles. Just like you can measure distance using feet, meters, or other systems, you can measure angles using degrees or radians. For various | A ''radian'' is simply a different unit used to measure angles. Just like you can measure distance using feet, meters, or other systems, you can measure angles using degrees or radians. For various reasons, mathematicians prefer radians. | ||
LSL exclusively uses radians, and not degrees. LSL does however provide [[DEG_TO_RAD]] and [[RAD_TO_DEG]] which can be used to convert from one to the other, to do so multiply the constant with the value. | |||
==Converting== | ==Converting== | ||
If you have a number d that is some number of degrees, you can convert it to radians by using d*DEG_TO_RAD. Likewise, if you have radians r, you can convert to degrees using r*RAD_TO_DEG. | If you have a number d that is some number of degrees, you can convert it to radians by using d*DEG_TO_RAD. Likewise, if you have radians r, you can convert to degrees using r*RAD_TO_DEG. | ||
Revision as of 12:13, 14 November 2008
Radians
Most people are familiar with the use of degrees to measure the size of an angle. A right angle is 90 degrees, a full circle is 360 degrees, and so on.
A radian is simply a different unit used to measure angles. Just like you can measure distance using feet, meters, or other systems, you can measure angles using degrees or radians. For various reasons, mathematicians prefer radians.
LSL exclusively uses radians, and not degrees. LSL does however provide DEG_TO_RAD and RAD_TO_DEG which can be used to convert from one to the other, to do so multiply the constant with the value.
Converting
If you have a number d that is some number of degrees, you can convert it to radians by using d*DEG_TO_RAD. Likewise, if you have radians r, you can convert to degrees using r*RAD_TO_DEG.