Degrees, Radians and all that jazz

[hypnos]

Hi,
I'm learning Trigonometry so that I can make graphical programs on my computer. I have a basic understanding of it already and know how to make things like analogue clocks (on the computer of course) etc. I'm really learning it so that I can start to involve that extra dimension (Z) and make 3D applications.

Anyhow, here's my question. I don't understand why I must convert degrees to radians. Don't get me wrong I know how to do it but I have just always wondered why I have to do it. Why doesn't using degrees work when programming graphical applications?

Thanks.

[SLH]

It doesn't work because funtions that need angles as a parameter use radians. They've been adopted as a standard. Not too sure why it ended being radians, as degrees are much nicer to visualise - guess a computer doesn't need to visualise the amgle though.

[Mister_J]

Hi

first people used degrees and they more ore less randomly decided to make a circle 360 degrees. For people in physics etc. (and also computers but that's some 100 years later) this wasn't a convenient way to work. They came up with the radian. A radian is chosen with a certain value that is based on the following thing:

In a circle with r =1 if you take a corner of 1 rad the distance on the circle is also 1. Then they calculated and found out that there are 2pi rads in a circle. So basicly it's somehow more convenient for scientists.......

Jordi

[/\/\isanThr0p]

well for the question

function toRad(Deg as integer) as single
  const Pi = 3.14
  toRad = Deg*Pi/180
end function

Alright I hope that works...

[ChuckB]

Hi,
I am just glad programming wasn't invented by a civil engineer. They are into using 'grads' instead of 'degrees'. I believe 90 degrees is equal to 100 grads or a grade of 100% which is straight up. ;-)

Regards,
ChuckB