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Illustration of a unit circle. The variable t is an angle measure. Animation of the act of unrolling the circumference of a unit circle, a circle with radius of 1. Since C = 2πr, the circumference of a unit circle is 2π. In mathematics, a unit circle is a circle of unit radius—that is, a radius of 1. [1]
A circle with an equilateral chord (red). One sixtieth of this arc is a degree. Six such chords complete the circle. [6] The original motivation for choosing the degree as a unit of rotations and angles is unknown. One theory states that it is related to the fact that 360 is approximately the number of days in a year.
Measuring from the x-axis, angles on the unit circle count as positive in the counterclockwise direction, and negative in the clockwise direction. It is frequently helpful to impose a convention that allows positive and negative angular values to represent orientations and/or rotations in opposite directions or "sense" relative to some reference.
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]
When radians (rad) are employed, the angle is given as the length of the arc of the unit circle subtended by it: the angle that subtends an arc of length 1 on the unit circle is 1 rad (≈ 57.3°), and a complete turn (360°) is an angle of 2 π (≈ 6.28) rad.
Animation demonstrating how the sine function (in red) is graphed from the y-coordinate (red dot) of a point on the unit circle (in green), at an angle of θ. The cosine (in blue) is the x-coordinate. Using the unit circle definition has the advantage of drawing a graph of sine and cosine functions.
English: Some common angles (multiples of 30 and 45 degrees) and the corresponding sine and cosine values shown on the Unit circle.The angles (θ) are given in degrees and radians, together with the corresponding intersection point on the unit circle, (cos θ, sin θ).
English: Some common angles (multiples of 30 and 45 degrees) and the corresponding sine and cosine values shown on the Unit circle.The angles (θ) are given in degrees and radians, together with the corresponding intersection point on the unit circle, (cos θ, sin θ).