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A degree (in full, a degree of arc, arc degree, or arcdegree), usually denoted by ° (the degree symbol), is a measurement of a plane angle in which one full rotation is 360 degrees. [4] It is not an SI unit—the SI unit of angular measure is the radian—but it is mentioned in the SI brochure as an accepted unit. [5]
Many angle units are defined as a division of the turn. For example, the degree is defined such that one turn is 360 degrees. Using metric prefixes, the turn can be divided in 100 centiturns or 1000 milliturns, with each milliturn corresponding to an angle of 0.36°, which can also be written as 21′ 36″.
Angles are typically measured in degrees (°) or in radians (rad), where 360° = 2 π rad. The use of degrees is most common in geography, astronomy, and engineering, where radians are commonly used in mathematics and theoretical physics.
Fractions of a degree may be written in normal decimal notation (e.g., 3.5° for three and a half degrees), but the "minute" and "second" sexagesimal subunits of the "degree–minute–second" system (discussed next) are also in use, especially for geographical coordinates and in astronomy and ballistics (n = 360) arcminute: 21,600: 0°1′
The Babylonian system of mathematics was a sexagesimal (base 60) numeral system. From this we derive the modern-day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 degrees in a circle. [8] The Babylonians were able to make great advances in mathematics for two reasons.
In mathematics and physics, the plate trick, also known as Dirac's string trick (after Paul Dirac, who introduced and popularized it), [1] [2] the belt trick, or the Balinese cup trick (it appears in the Balinese candle dance), is any of several demonstrations of the idea that rotating an object with strings attached to it by 360 degrees does not return the system to its original state, while ...
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The interior angle concept can be extended in a consistent way to crossed polygons such as star polygons by using the concept of directed angles.In general, the interior angle sum in degrees of any closed polygon, including crossed (self-intersecting) ones, is then given by 180(n–2k)°, where n is the number of vertices, and the strictly positive integer k is the number of total (360 ...