Angle

This article is about angles in geometry. For other articles, see Angle (disambiguation)

Euclid defines a plane angle as the inclination to each other, in a plane, of two lines which meet each other, and do not lie straight with respect to each other. According to Proclus an angle must be either a quality or a quantity, or a relationship. The first concept was used by Eudemus, who regarded an angle as a deviation from a straight line; the second by Carpus of Antioch, who regarded it as the interval or space between the intersecting lines; Euclid adopted the third concept, although his definitions of right, acute, and obtuse angles are certainly quantitative.

Units of measure for angles

• The Radian measure of the angle is the length of the arc cut out by the angle, divided by the circle's radius. The SI system of units uses radians as the (derived) unit for angles. Because of the relationship to arc length, radians are a special unit. Sines and cosines whose argument is in radians have particular analytic properties, just as do exponential functions in the base e. (As we've discovered, this is no coincidence).

• The degree measure of the angle is the length of the arc, divided by the circumference of the circle, and multiplied by 360. The symbol for degrees is a small superscript circle, as in 360°. 2π radians is equal to 360° (a full circle), so one radian is about 57° and one degree is π/180 radians. Degrees are further broken down into minutes of arc and seconds of arc, which are 1/60th and 1/3600th of a degree, respectively. Minutes of arc are commonly encountered in discussions of External ballistics, as a minute of arc covers almost exactly 1 inch at 100 yards (1 m at 1200 m). A Rifle capable of shooting "1 MOA", one minute of arc, can place all shots within 1 inch at 100 yards, 2 inches at 200 yards, etc. Minutes of arc were also used in Navigation, and a Nautical mile is roughly defined as one minute of arc of the earth's surface.

• The Grad, also called grade, gradian or gon, is an angular measure where the arc is divided by the circumference, and multiplied by 400. It is used mostly in Triangulation.

• The point is used in Navigation, and is defined as 1/32 of a circle, or exactly 11.25°.

• The full circle or full turns represents the number or fraction of complete full turns. For example, π/2 radians = 90° = 1/4 full circle

Conventions on measurement

In mathematics radians are assumed unless specified otherwise because this removes the arbitrariness of the number 360 in the degree system and because the trigonometric functions can be developed into particularly simple Taylor series if their arguments are specified in radians.

Types of angles

Two line segments, rays, or lines (or any combination) which form a right angle are said to be either Perpendicular or orthogonal:

• Angles smaller than a right angle are called acute angles
• Angles larger than a right angle are called obtuse angles.
• Angles equal to two right angles are called straight angles.
• Angles larger than two right angles are called reflex angles.

• The difference between an acute angle and a right angle is termed the complement of the angle
• The difference between an angle and two right angles is termed the supplement of the angle.

Some facts

If two straight lines intersect, four angles are formed. Each one has an equal measure to the angle across from it; these congruent angles are called vertical angles.

If a straight Transversal line intersects two parallel lines, corresponding (alternate) angles at the two points of intersection are equal; adjacent angles are supplementary, that is they add to π radians or 180°.

A formal definition

cos θ =

x ––––––––––––––– √(x 2 + y 2 )

and

sin θ =

y ––––––––––––––– √(x 2 + y 2 )

for two numbers x and y. So an angle can be legitimately given by two numbers x and y, or by a ratio

y –– x

. What's more, to any such ratio there corresponds exactly one angle, since

sin θ ––––––– cos θ

=

y/(√(x 2 + y 2 ) ) –––––––––––––––––––––– x/(√(x 2 + y 2 ) )

=

y –– x

(i.e., changing the ratio will necessarily change the sin and cos, which in the geometric range 0 < θ < 2 π are one-to-one - one sin or cos corresponds to one θ).

Angles in different contexts

u • v = cos( θ) |u| |v|.

This allows one to define angles in any real Inner product space, replacing the Euclidean dot product · by the Hilbert space inner product <·,·>.

The angle between a line and a Curve (mixed angle) or between two intersecting curves (curvilinear angle) is defined to be the angle between the tangents at the point of intersection. Various names (now rarely, if ever, used) have been given to particular cases:—amphicyrtic (Gr. ἀμφί, on both sides, κυρτόσ, Convex) or cissoidal (Gr. κισσόσ, ivy), biconvex; xystroidal or sistroidal (Gr. ξυστρίσ, a tool for scraping), concavo-convex; amphicoelic (Gr. κοίλη, a hollow) or angulus lunularis, biconcave.

Two intersecting planes form an angle, called their Dihedral angle. It is defined as the angle between two lines normal to the planes.

Also a plane and an intersecting line form an angle. This angle is equal to π/2 radians minus the angle between the intersecting line and the line that goes through the point of intersection and is Perpendicular to the plane.

Angles in Riemannian geometry

n cos θ =

g ij U i V j –––––––––––– n

{

√

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– | g ij U i U j