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It's kind of like radians vs. degrees. Degrees seem ridiculous if you're doing trig, but working with irrational fractions of pi is ridiculous if you're trying
by lukeschlather 6y ago
It's kind of like radians vs. degrees. Degrees seem ridiculous if you're doing trig, but working with irrational fractions of pi is ridiculous if you're trying to measure with a protractor. If you need to convert to radians to do some trig (and let's be honest you usually don't) you are going to end up converting something like degrees that are marked on the protractor anyway.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago> Degrees seem ridiculous if you're doing trig Degrees are ridiculous if you're doing calculus. They don't really pose any problems if you're doing trig. > but working with irrational fractions of pi is ridiculous if you're trying to measure with a protractor. Sure, that's true, but that's only because irrational numbers are by definition infinitely precise. It's no more difficult to use a protractor labeled in increments of 0.02 radians than one labeled in increments of one degree.
- lukeschlather 6y ago30/60 degrees are round numbers which are very useful for a lot of applications. Your .02 radian protractor doesn't have a mark on it for either.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoRealistically, it probably would; those marks would just not fit into the progression of .02 radian marks. Ever seen a meter stick that also measured inches? Are you trying to measure an angle, draw a particular angle, or confirm that an angle meets a particular standard?
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y ago360 is evenly divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, and 20. 0.02 radians would absolutely be a ridiculous unit of measurement if you were a carpenter or draftsman in the age before computing.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago> 360 is evenly divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, and 20. But if you're trying to measure an angle, this is totally irrelevant. The angle is whatever it is.