Degrees

Degrees are used to express directionality and angle size. If you stand facing directly north, you are
facing the direction of zero degrees, written as 0. If you turn yourself fully around, so you end up facing
north again, you have "turned through" 360; that is, one revolution (one circle) is 360.

Radians
Why do we have to learn radians, when we already have perfectly good degrees? Because degrees,
technically speaking, are not actually numbers, and we can only do math with numbers. This is somewhat
similar to the difference between decimals and percentages. Yes, "83%" has a clear meaning, but to do
mathematical computations, you first must convert to the equivalent decimal form, 0.83. Something
similar is going on here (which will make more sense as you progress further into calculus, etc).
The 360 for one revolution ("once around") is messy enough. Why is the value for one revolution in
radians the irrational value 2? Because this value makes the math work out right. You know that the
circumference C of a circle with radius r is given by C = 2r. If r = 1, then C = 2. For reasons you'll
learn later, mathematicians like to work with the "unit" circle, being the circle with r = 1. For the math to
make sense, the "numerical" value corresponding to 360 needed to be defined as (that is, needed to be
invented having the property of) "2 is the numerical value of 'once around'."

To convert from degrees to radians, multiply by

To convert from radians to degrees multiply by

180
180

Standard Position:

An angle is in standard
position if its vertex is located at the origin and one ray
is on the positive x-axis. The ray on the x-axis is called
the initial side and the other ray is called the terminal
side. If the terminal side of an angle lies"on" the axes
(such as 0, 90, 180, 270, 360 ), it is called
aquadrantal angle. The angle shown at the right is
referred to as aQuadrant II angle since its terminal side
lies in Quadrant II.
The angle is measured by the amount of rotation
from the initial side to the terminal side. If
measured in acounterclockwise direction the
measurement is positive. If measured in
a clockwise direction the measurement
isnegative. (A negative associated with an angle's
measure refers to its "direction" of measurement,
clockwise.)
If two angles in standard position have the same
terminal side, they are called coterminal angles.

Reference Angles:

Associated with every angle drawn in standard position

(except quadrantal angles) there is another angle called the reference angle. The
reference angle is theacute angle formed by the terminal side of the given angle and
the x-axis. Reference angles may appear in all four quadrants. Angles in quadrant I
are their own reference angles.