Question

How would you convert an angle in degrees to an angle in radians?

Answer 1

For reference, one full circle is 360 degrees or 2pi radians.

If we were to convert 360 degrees to radians, we could set up the following equation:

360k = 2pi

where k is a constant. By solving for k, we can find what value we must multiply any angle in degrees by to get its radian counterpart.

Divide both sides by 360:

k = 2pi/360

Reduce:

k = pi/180

So to convert an angle from degrees to radians, multiply it by pi/180. For example, 120 degrees would be:

120 * pi/180 = 2pi/3 radians