Radian
The radian, denoted by the symbol rad, is the unit of angle in the International System of Units (SI) and is the standard unit of angular measure used in many areas of mathematics. It is defined such that one radian is the angle subtended at the centre of a circle by an arc that is equal in length to the radius.[2] The unit was formerly an SI supplementary unit and is currently a dimensionless SI derived unit,[2] defined in the SI as 1 rad = 1[3] and expressed in terms of the SI base unit metre (m) as rad = m/m.[4] Angles without explicitly specified units are generally assumed to be measured in radians, especially in mathematical writing.[5]
"㎭" redirects here. Not to be confused with Rad (radiation unit).History
Pre-20th century
The idea of measuring angles by the length of the arc was in use by mathematicians quite early. For example, al-Kashi (c. 1400) used so-called diameter parts as units, where one diameter part was 1/60 radian. They also used sexagesimal subunits of the diameter part.[30] Newton in 1672 spoke of "the angular quantity of a body's circular motion", but used it only as a relative measure to develop an astronomical algorithm.[31]
The concept of the radian measure is normally credited to Roger Cotes, who died in 1716. By 1722, his cousin Robert Smith had collected and published Cotes' mathematical writings in a book, Harmonia mensurarum.[32] In a chapter of editorial comments, Smith gave what is probably the first published calculation of one radian in degrees, citing a note of Cotes that has not survived. Smith described the radian in everything but name – "Now this number is equal to 180 degrees as the radius of a circle to the semicircumference, this is as 1 to 3.141592653589" –, and recognized its naturalness as a unit of angular measure.[33][34]
In 1765, Leonhard Euler implicitly adopted the radian as a unit of angle.[31] Specifically, Euler defined angular velocity as "The angular speed in rotational motion is the speed of that point, the distance of which from the axis of gyration is expressed by one."[35] Euler was probably the first to adopt this convention, referred to as the radian convention, which gives the simple formula for angular velocity ω = v/r. As discussed in § Dimensional analysis, the radian convention has been widely adopted, and other conventions have the drawback of requiring a dimensional constant, for example ω = v/(ηr).[25]
Prior to the term radian becoming widespread, the unit was commonly called circular measure of an angle.[36] The term radian first appeared in print on 5 June 1873, in examination questions set by James Thomson (brother of Lord Kelvin) at Queen's College, Belfast. He had used the term as early as 1871, while in 1869, Thomas Muir, then of the University of St Andrews, vacillated between the terms rad, radial, and radian. In 1874, after a consultation with James Thomson, Muir adopted radian.[37][38][39] The name radian was not universally adopted for some time after this. Longmans' School Trigonometry still called the radian circular measure when published in 1890.[40]
In 1893 Alexander Macfarlane wrote "the true analytical argument for the circular ratios is not the ratio of the arc to the radius, but the ratio of twice the area of a sector to the square on the radius."[41] For some reason the paper was withdrawn from the published proceedings of mathematical congress held in connection with World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (acknowledged at page 167), and privately published in his Papers on Space Analysis (1894). Macfarlane reached this idea or ratios of areas while considering the basis for hyperbolic angle which is analogously defined.[42]
