Angles

Subject classification: this is a mathematics resource .

An angle can be defined as two rays sharing a common vertex.

Measurement of angles

An angle is measured by considering the ratio of an arc to the radius of the arc. A scaling constant k is multiplied for various units.

\theta=\frac{s}{r}(k)°

Units of measurement

There are various units of measurement for measuring angles, however the most commonly used are degrees or radians.

1° = 60' (60 arcminutes) = 3600" (3600 arcseconds)
  • Radians - This is a number and is dimensionless. A full circle is equal to 2\pi (pronounced two pi) radians. This in conjunction with the formula for arc length defines the historically famous irrational number \pi (pronounced pi) as,
\pi=\frac{1}{2}\frac{circumference~of~a~circle}{radius~of~the~circle}

There are six types of angles: Acute, Obtuse, Straight, Right, Reflex and Complete.

  1. An Acute angle is less than 90° and more than 0°
  2. An Obtuse angle is more than 90° and less than 180°
  3. A Straight angle is 180°.
  4. A Right angle is 90°.
  5. A Reflex angle is more than 180°.
  6. A Complete angle is 360°.
This article is issued from Wikiversity - version of the Friday, June 28, 2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.