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Abstract. This article is discussing the answer to two basic questions: Are radians better then degrees? Why? and At what time of the learning cycle should be radians introduced? Views expressed in textbooks and online texts, teachers and students views are presented and compared. Rsum. Dans cet article nous recherchons des rponses aux questions fondamentales suivantes: " Est-ce que l`usage des radians est plus prfrable que l'usage des degrs? Et pourquoi? " Au quel niveau d'enseignement scolaire devrait-on introduire l'usage des radians? L`article prsente et compare diffrents points de vue exprims soit par des tudiants et enseignants, soit par des auteurs des manuels de mathmatiques ou des textes sur l'internet. Zusammenfassung. Dieser Artikel sucht Antworten auf folgenden fundamentalen Fragen: "Sind Radianten besser als Grade? Warum?" Und "Welche Etape des Unterrichtszyklus ist zur Einfuhrung der Radianten geeignet?" Wir vergleichen verschiedene Informationen, Konzeptionen und Ansichte die bei Studenten, Lehrer, oder in Lehrbucher und im Internet presentiert waren. Riassunto. Questo articolo discute circa la risposta a due fondamentali quesiti: I radianti sono meglio dei gradi? Perch? e In quale momento, nel corso degli studi, i radianti possono essere introdotti? Verranno presentate e confrontate i diversi punti di vista nei libri di testo e nei testi online oltre a quelli degli insegnanti e studenti. Abstrakt. lnok sa zaober hadanm odpoved na zkladn otzky: S radiny lepie ako stupne? Preo? a V ktorej etape vuky je vhodn zavies radiny? Porovnvame rzne informcie, prstupy a nzory prezentovan v uebniciach, internetovch lekcich a frach, nzory uiteov aj tudentov. Key words: trigonometric functions, learning cycle, radians, degrees, unit circle, chord, history of trigonometry, introduction of radians, definition of radians, ratio, trigonometric tables
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1 INTRODUCTION
Trigonometric functions are taught in two learning cycles. In the first cycle, they are defined in a right triangle and degrees are used as a unit of measure. In the second phase, the definition of trigonometric functions is based on the unit circle and radians are used as a unit of measure. In these second phase, the following question arises: Why should one use radians instead of degrees? What is wrong with degrees if we cant use them any more? To get a satisfactory answer, one has to study the history of trigonometric functions, look up how radians are introduced in different textbooks and online lessons. Moreover, the question of the proper timing of introducing the concept of radians arises. This article is discussing the answer to two basic questions: Are radians better then degrees? Why? and At what time of the learning cycle should be radians introduced?
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sin x = cos x dx does not require the insertion of multiplicative constants such as /180. Another argument was: Mathematicians like Gregory, de Moivre, Euler were using the circular definition of trigonometric functions where the argument was a real number corresponding to the ratio between the length of the arc and the length of the circle radius. When searching for a confirmation of this view, finally we found two sources. In chapter on Angles from E.W. Weisstein (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ Angle.html ) we have: The use of degrees to measure angles harks back to the Babylonians, whose sexagesimal number system was based on the number 60. 360 likely arises from the Babylonian year, which was composed of 360 days (12 months of 30 days each). The degree is further divided into 60 arc minutes, and an arc minute into 60 arc seconds. A more natural measure of an angle is the radian. It has the property that the arc length around a circle is simply given by the radian angle measure times the circle radius. The radian is also the most useful angle measure in calculus because the derivative of the trigonometric functions such as
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sin x = cos x dx does not require the insertion of multiplicative constants such as /180. Gradians are sometimes used in surveying (they have the nice property that a right angle is exactly 100 gradians), but are encountered infrequently, if at all, in mathematics. The second source was the Lesson on Angle Measure and Circular Functions (http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/depts/tandl/mted/Thompson/2360f99/TrigFuncs/ RadeanMeas.html): The motivation for using radian measure in mathematics is this: The value of a trig function can be thought of as being a fractional part of a circles radius. By having trig functions arguments be in units of the circles radius, a functions arguments and the functions values are in the same unit. (This is why the theorem sin x lim =1 x 0 x is true only when x is in radians. When x is in degrees, this limit is /180)
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that Hipparchus wrote twelve books of tables of chords. This makes Hipparchus the founder of trigonometry. Ptolemy was the next author of a book of chords, showing the same Babylonian influence as Hipparchus, dividing the circle into 360 and the diameter into 120 parts. The suggestion here is that he was following earlier practice when the approximation 3 for was used. The following conclusion follows from the suggestion above: In the work of Ptolemy, the radius of the circle is equivalent to 60 parts and the perimeter of the circle divided into 360 parts. So equivalent length units measure both the arc length and the radius length, which is the idea of radians.
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and the circumference of the circle multiplied by 360. A numerical value in gradians is a ratio between the arc length and the circumference of the circle multiplied by 400. And what are radians? Considering the standardized /2, , 3 /2, 2 used as the arguments of the sine function, one would say that they are the fractions of the circumference of the unit circle. However, one radian cant be expressed as a nice fractional part of a circle or its circumference. What is difficult with radians, since they are expressing the ratio between an arc and the radius of a circle, irrational numbers are corresponding to basic situations the length of a period of the sine function is an irrational number. So, instead of using numerical values as 6,2831.... the exact value 2 is used. However, for students this 2 is becoming an equivalent of 360 degrees, and very soon has nothing to do with the number 6,2831...
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the reason for introducing radians. Moreover, at this time, students are already familiarized with the notion of derivatives, so they can appreciate the fact that the derivative of sine is cosine and thanks to radians does not require the insertion of multiplicative constant such as /180.
In our experiment, there were students who, sketching the graph of sine in the first step, marked on the x-axis the values for /2, , 3/2 and 2 at correct positions.
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Then, in step 2, they did not mark the value of 1 along the x-axis at all, or they marked it quite close to 0 the position one should imagine for 1.In step 3 they explain that in trigonometry, states for 180. In step 4 they claim, that the used in trigonometric functions has nothing to do with the Ludolphian number . Then there was the second, much bigger group of students, who positioned the number 1 to the correct place along the x-axis and in step 3 talked about the arc length and radians. For us, the most interesting part of test was the answer to question 5. The variety of answers was quite wide: Some students answered simply I do not know, the others tried to find some reasonable argument: Its because we can exactly say where we should position along the xaxis, thats at 3,14. But where should I position 1? When using , you can easily detect the length of the period. 2 is nicer then 360. On the other hand, you should as well use an icon of a flower instead of . Since in solutions in the textbooks, the values with are used. Since with radians, we are using the same units for measuring the angle as for measuring the sine. There was no single answer where derivative or circle geometry would be mentioned.
9 CONCLUSION
In our conclusion, we are speaking about two groups of students: The first one are high school students in their second learning cycle of trigonometric functions. The second are future teachers of mathematics, students who are in preparation for their profession. While searching the answer to the question Why are radians better then degrees? we came to many interesting observations. 1. The value of the trigonometric function is a ratio of line segments, so it has no dimension. The argument of a trigonometric function can be thought as being an angle or a ratio of the arc length and the circle radius. Again, both the angle and the ratio are quantities with no dimension. Here, for students (future teachers) an interesting didactical situation arises. We can discuss with them why one degree has no dimension while for example one centimeter does have a dimension.
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2.
3.
Examining the early history, we can see that the first work on trigonometric functions related to chords of a circle. Given a circle of fixed radius, the problem was to find the length of the chord subtended by the given angle. In the work of Ptolemy (85 165), the radius of the circle is equivalent to 60 parts and the perimeter of the circle divided into 360 parts. In this way both the radius and the perimeter have approximately equivalent units measure. So, it seems, that, for some reason, the need for equivalent units measure is a quite strong one. In the 18th Century, Bernoulli, Cotes and Euler were using the ratio of the arc length and the circle radius as arguments of trigonometric functions. They were using equivalent units measure for the arguments and values of trigonometric functions. However, we cant illustrate to students in their second learning cycle the usefulness of equivalent units measure using the famous formulas of these mathematicians. Since the students are not familiarized with the notions of the complex numbers, logarithmic and exponential functions, infinite series or derivatives. As physicists are using modern calculus, the need for defining radians as measure unit in physics is quite understandable. Again, this can be a topic for discussion with future teachers. For the needs of calculus, taking the proper ratio (the ratio of the arc length and of the circle radius) is enough. For physics, there is the need to define the measure unit, so, it is a physicist who does this. For the needs of mathematical astronomy, Rheticus (1514 1576) produced substantial tables of trigonometric functions, which were published after his death. The angles were measured in degrees. In surveying, degrees are used up to now. Pitiscus extensively corrected the defective tangents and secants in the original edition of Rheticus' posthumously-published Opus palatinum de triangulis (Heidelburg, 1596). Piticus discovered the formulas for sin 2x, sin 3x, cos 2x, cos 3x (http://www.bl.uk/collections/galileo.html). These formulas are part of the syllabus of the second learning cycle in trigonometry teaching. Here, one can illustrate the utilization of these formulas the way they were used by Pitiscus to count the values of trigonometric functions with precision to 15 decimal places. Lets note, that in this situation, we are working steadily with degrees.
To appreciate the concept of radians one needs to know what they are for. Introduction of a new notion while there is no real need for it may be sometimes very confusing and may result in building up a faulty comprehension of this conception. In our opinion radians should not been introduced at high school. The
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proper time to introduce them is when we really need them. If one knows what radians are for, radians turn out to be a very interesting concept.
REFERENCES
imr J.: Vznik a vvoj matematickej symboliky, TEMPUS PHARE, Bratislava, jl 2000 Hecht T., ernek P.: Matematika pre 2. ronk gymnzi a SO, OrbisPictusIstroplitana, 1997 Hejn M. a kol.: Teria vyuovania matematiky 2, Slovensk pedagogick nakladatestvo, Bratislava 1990 Zedovi J.B.: Vyia matematika pre zaiatonkov, ALFA, 1973 http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/trig/functions.html, Trigonometric functions http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/courses/gladney/mathphys/subsubsection1_1_4_2.html, Trigonometric functions, May 2005 http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Angle.html, Eric W. Weisstein. "Angle." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/depts/tandl/mted/Thompson/2360f99/TrigFuncs/RadeanMeas.html, Lesson on Angle Measure and Circular Functions http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/Stefan_Waner/trig/trig1.html,The Trigonometric Functions by Stefan Waner and Steven R. Costenoble, May 2005 http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Trigonometric_functions.html, The trigonometric functions http://www.bl.uk/collections/galileo.html, The British library The worlds knowledge
ERIKA KUPKOV, Department of Algebra, Geometry and Didactics of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, 842 48 Bratislava, Slovakia E-mail: kupkova@fmph.uniba.sk