Lesson 5 Rays and Radians Solidify Understanding
Jump Start
Madison and her friends are trying to write a good definition of radians for their Exit Ticket. Here are some of their responses. Decide if each statement is true or false. Then decide if each statement is useful as written or requires more precision.
Student | A radian is... | True or False? | Useful or Lacks Precision? |
---|---|---|---|
Travis | A new way of measuring angles. | ||
Anushka | A way of measuring a central angle using arc length, rather than degrees. | ||
Aaliyah | The measure of an arc whose length equals the radius of the circle. | ||
Aryan | The ratio of arc length to radius. | ||
Mateo | A different unit for measuring angles rather than using degrees. |
Learning Focus
Measure angles in radians.
How do we convert between degree and radian measurement?
How can I visualize the size of an angle when its measure is given in radians instead of degrees?
Open Up the Math: Launch, Explore, Discuss
In the previous task, Madison’s Round Garden, Madison finds a new way to measure angles. Apparently Madison is not the first person to have this idea for measuring an angle in terms of arc length, but once she is aware of it, she decides to examine it further.
Here are some of Madison’s questions. See if you can answer them.
1.
Since a
2.
A circle measures
3.
The formula Madison has been using to calculate radian measurement for an angle that measures
Is there a simpler formula for converting degree measurement to radian measurement?
4.
What formula might you use to convert radian measurement back to degrees?
Pause and Reflect
Madison is so excited about radian measurement that she decides to learn more about it by going online. She finds this statement: An arc of a circle with the same length as the radius of that circle corresponds to an angle of
5.
Why is the first sentence in this statement true?
6.
Why is the second sentence in this statement true?
7.
Use a piece of string and a circle to determine how many radians there are in a full circle. Does this experiment verify or contradict the statements Madison finds online?
Madison finds this idea of writing radian measurement in terms of
Like Madison, you have probably used a protractor to measure angles. A protractor is usually marked to measure angles in degrees. Madison decides she would like to create a protractor to measure angles in radians.
8.
Label the protractor in radians, using fractions involving
Ready for More?
1.
Consider a circle on a coordinate grid with its center at the origin
(Note: One ray of each of the angles will be the ray that extends from the center of the circle along the positive
The non-horizontal ray of angles measuring between
2.
As you are responding to this prompt, consider this question: Is it possible for an angle to measure more than
Takeaways
Radians written in terms of
Radians written as decimals give
Visualizing angles measured in radians is assisted by knowing some benchmark angles, for example (list as many degree / radian equivalents as you can):
To convert from radians to degrees, I can
To convert from degrees to radians, I can
Lesson Summary
In this lesson, we learned how to approximate the size of an angle measured in radians, and we learned the radian measure for some familiar angles measured in degrees, such as 90° and 180°. We also learned how to convert between degree and radian measures.
1.
a.
If you purchased
b.
If your employer said he would pay you
c.
If an arc measures
d.
If an arc measures
2.
Draw a central angle on the circle.
What do you need to know to draw a central angle?
Draw an inscribed angle that subtends the same arc as the central angle you drew.
What is the relationship between the measure of a central angle and the corresponding inscribed angle?