One degree (shown in red) and

ninety degrees (shown in blue)

A circle with an equilateral chord
(red). One sixtieth of this arc is a
degree. Six such chords complete the
circle.
Degree (angle)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article describes the unit of angle. For other meanings, see
degree.
A degree (in full, a degree of arc, arc degree, or arcdegree),
usually denoted by (the degree symbol), is a measurement of plane
angle, representing
1

360
of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to
/180 radians. It is not an SI unit, as the SI unit for angles is radian,
but it is mentioned in the SI brochure as an accepted unit.
[1]
When
that angle is with respect to a reference meridian, it indicates a
location along a great circle of a sphere, such as Earth (see
Geographic coordinate system), Mars, or the celestial sphere.
[2]
Contents
1 History
2 Subdivisions
3 Alternative units
3.1 Conversion of some common angles
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links
History
The original motivation for choosing the degree as a unit of rotations
and angles is unknown. One theory states that it is related to the fact
that 360 is approximately the number of days in a year.
[3]
Ancient
astronomers noticed that the stars in the sky, which circle the
celestial pole every day, seem to advance in that circle by
approximately one-360th of a circle, i.e., one degree, each day. Some
ancient calendars, such as the Persian calendar, used 360 days for a
year. The use of a calendar with 360 days may be related to the use
of sexagesimal numbers.
An alternative theory is that the degree is one sixtieth of the angle of
an equilateral triangle.
[4]
The earliest trigonometry, used by the
Babylonian astronomers and their Greek successors, was based on
chords of a circle. A chord of length equal to the radius made a
natural base quantity. One sixtieth of this, using their standard
sexagesimal divisions, was a degree.
Aristarchus of Samos and Hipparchos seem to have been among the first Hellenic scientists to exploit
Babylonian astronomical knowledge and techniques systematically.
[5]
Timocharis, Aristarchus, Aristillus,
Archimedes, and Hipparchus were the first Greeks known to divide the circle in 360 degrees of 60 arc
minutes (DIO 14 (http://www.dioi.org/vols/we0.pdf) 2 p.19 n.24). Eratosthenes used a simpler sexagesimal
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system dividing a circle into 60 parts.
The division of the circle into 360 parts also occurred in ancient India, as evidenced in the Rigveda:
[6]
Twelve spokes, one wheel, navels three.
Who can comprehend this?
On it are placed together
three hundred and sixty like pegs.
They shake not in the least.
Dirghatamas , Rigveda 1.164.48
Another motivation for choosing the number 360 may have been that it is readily divisible: 360 has 24
divisors,
[7]
including every number from 1 to 10 except 7 .
[8]
This property has many useful applications,
such as dividing the world into 24 time zones, each of which is nominally 15 of longitude, to correlate with
the established 24-hour day convention.
Finally, it may be the case that more than one of these factors has come into play. According to that theory,
the number is approximately 365 because of the apparent movement of the sun against the celestial sphere
and that it was rounded to 360 for some of the mathematical reasons cited above.
Subdivisions
For many practical purposes, a degree is a small enough angle that whole degrees provide sufficient
precision. When this is not the case, as in astronomy or for latitudes and longitudes on the Earth, degree
measurements may be written with decimal places like 40.1875 with the degree symbol behind the
decimals.
Alternatively, the traditional sexagesimal unit subdivision can be used. One degree is divided into 60 minutes
(of arc), and one minute into 60 seconds (of arc). These units, also called the arcminute and arcsecond, are
respectively represented as a single and double prime: for example, 40.1875 = 40 11 15 . Sometimes
single and double quotation marks are used instead 40 11 15" .
If still more accuracy is required, current practice is to use decimal divisions of the second like 40 11 15.4
. The older system of thirds, fourths, etc., which continues the sexagesimal unit subdivision, was used by
al-Kashi and other ancient astronomers, but is rarely used today. These subdivisions were
denoted
[citation needed]
by writing the Roman numeral for the number of sixtieths in superscript: 1
I
for a
"prime" (minute of arc), 1
II
for a second, 1
III
for a third, 1
IV
for a fourth, etc. Hence the modern symbols for
the minute and second of arc, and the word "second" also refer to this system.
[citation needed]
Alternative units
See also: Measuring angles
In most mathematical work beyond practical geometry, angles are typically measured in radians rather than
degrees. This is for a variety of reasons; for example, the trigonometric functions have simpler and more
"natural" properties when their arguments are expressed in radians. These considerations outweigh the
convenient divisibility of the number 360. One complete turn (360) is equal to 2 radians, so 180 is equal
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A chart to convert between degrees and radians
to radians, or equivalently, the degree is a
mathematical constant: 1 =

180
.
The turn (or revolution, full circle, full rotation, cycle) is
used in technology and science. 1 turn = 360.
With the invention of the metric system, based on
powers of ten, there was an attempt to define a "decimal
degree" (grad or gon), so that the number of decimal
degrees in a right angle would be 100 gon, and there
would be 400 gon in a circle. Although this idea was
abandoned already by Napoleon, some groups have
continued to use it and many scientific calculators still
support it.
An angular mil, which is most used in military
applications, has at least three specific variants, ranging
from
1

6400
to
1

6000
, each approximately equal to one
milliradian. However,
1

6000
used by the Russian Army
originated in Imperial Russia, where an equilateral chord was divided into tenths to give a circle of 600 units
(this may be seen on a uglomer, circa 1900, in the St Petersberg Museum of Artillery).
Conversion of some common angles
Units Values
Turns 0
1

12
1

8
1

6
1

4
1

2
3

4
1
Degrees 0 30 45 60 90 180 270 360
Radians 0 2
Grads
0
g
33
g
50
g
66
g
100
g
200
g
300
g
400
g
See also
Gradian
Radian
Turn
Square degree
Steradian
Compass
Geographic coordinate system
Meridian arc
Notes
^ http://www.bipm.org/en/si/si_brochure/chapter4/table6.html 1.
^ Beckmann P. (1976) A History of Pi, St. Martins Griffin. ISBN 0-312-38185-9 2.
^ Degree (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Degree.html) , MathWorld 3.
^ J.H. Jeans (1947), The Growth of Physical Science, p.7 (http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&
lr=&id=JX49AAAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA7) ; Francis Dominic Murnaghan (1946), Analytic Geometry, p.2
4.
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^ For more information see D.Rawlins (http://www.dioi.org/cot.htm#dqsr) on Aristarchus; and G. J. Toomer,
"Hipparchus and Babylonian astronomy."
5.
^ Dirghatamas, Rigveda 1.164.48 6.
^ The divisors of 360 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and
360.
7.
^ Contrast this with the relatively unwieldy 2520, which is the least common multiple for every number from 1
to 10.
8.
External links
Degrees as an angle measure (http://www.mathopenref.com/degrees.html) , with interactive
animation
Degree (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Degree.html) at MathWorld
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Degree_(angle)&oldid=456279676"
Categories: Units of angle Imperial units Mathematical constants
Customary units in the United States
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