Rob Jennings

Blackshare-2 5/19/2011

The Unit Circle

Rob Jennings
Blackshare-2 5/19/2011

When you have a unit circle, a circle with a radius of 1 and centered at the origin, there are 3 ways to define a point along the circumference of the circle. The most common way is to identify the (x,y) coordinates, also known as ordered pairs. Another way is to define the angle between the radius connecting that point to the origin and the x-axis, in degrees. There are 360 degrees in every circle, including the unit circle. A third way to locate the point is to measure the distance along the circumference of the circle in radians. There are 2 radians in every circle. Comparing degrees and radians is kind of like comparing Fahrenheit and Celsius. Radians and degrees are just measures of distance along the circle. Each point along the circumference of a circle can be uniquely defined by any of these three measurements. The above pictures depict the different ways to identify any single point on the unit circle.