degrees and radians.

[Tim Hammerquist]

Simon Foster graced us by uttering:
> Tim Hammerquist <tim at vegeta.ath.cx> wrote:
>>You're right. Not enough coffee and too much time passed since college
>>trig. =) Correction:
>>
>>: If trig were based on degrees, the following would be true for a
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                ^^^^^
>>: unit circle:
>>:
>>:   [ A = (180 * r^2) = 180 sq. units ]
>>:   [ C = (360 * r)   = 360 units     ]
>>
>>Thus:
>>
>>  "since when does a unit circle have an area of 180 sq. units?"
>>                                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> I think you need more coffee!  Surely PI is "3 and a bit"!  The
> area of a unit circle is pi.  How big do you make it?

I think you missed my point. The OP was expressing his shock at Math.sin
accepting its argument in radians. I was painting a picture of what the
world would be like if trig were based on degrees instead.

Operating under the fairly certain assumption that (2*PI) radians = 360
degrees, I simply replace pi with 180 degrees in the classic geometric
functions. Thus:

  A =  PI * r^2

becomes:

  A = 180 * r^2

So, for a unit circle whose radius is 1:

  A = 180 * (1)^2
  A = 180 * (1)
  A = 180
 --> 180 sq. units ?!?!?!

This is quite obviously ridiculous, and was intended so.

To satisfy your question, however, my value of pi, stored permanently in
my brain to six significant digits since Mr. Chatfield's calc class in
high school: 3.14159 ;)

> Simon Foster
> Somewhere in the West of England

Tim Hammerquist
Somewhere in the West of the United States
-- 
It's astonishing how much trouble one can
get oneself into, if one works at it.
    -- Destruction, The Sandman