Comments on: DMS and Radians http://jamesbadger.ca/2006/03/06/dms-and-radians/ Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:34:57 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Dakroth http://jamesbadger.ca/2006/03/06/dms-and-radians/comment-page-1/#comment-6016 Dakroth Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:21:07 +0000 http://jamesbadger.ca/?p=25#comment-6016 I must correct myself - I was thinking of decimal degrees in my previous comment, not radians. The logic is the same, though. The negative sign on a radian value (say, -X rad) is merely stating that you measure a value of X radians clockwise from 0. Radians are generally measured counter-clockwise from the 0 point, so a negative radian is just that many radians clockwise instead of in the normal direction. On a circle, you'd measure negative values down from zero instead of up. Either way, when converting the numbers themselves, disregard the negative symbol. Hope that helps. I must correct myself – I was thinking of decimal degrees in my previous comment, not radians.

The logic is the same, though.

The negative sign on a radian value (say, -X rad) is merely stating that you measure a value of X radians clockwise from 0. Radians are generally measured counter-clockwise from the 0 point, so a negative radian is just that many radians clockwise instead of in the normal direction. On a circle, you’d measure negative values down from zero instead of up. Either way, when converting the numbers themselves, disregard the negative symbol.

Hope that helps.

]]> By: Dakroth http://jamesbadger.ca/2006/03/06/dms-and-radians/comment-page-1/#comment-6015 Dakroth Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:27:03 +0000 http://jamesbadger.ca/?p=25#comment-6015 That would be because negative radians, technically, do not exist. In the application of map coordinates, for example, negative radians are the way by which you distinguish north coordinates from south coordinates and east coordinates from west coordinates. Think of it as a grid system. 3 to the left of the X axis is the same distance as 3 to the right, just in the opposite direction. Essentially, the negative sign is irrelevant, as far as the numbers are concerned, until you need to specify in which direction from the axis you need to be going. That would be because negative radians, technically, do not exist. In the application of map coordinates, for example, negative radians are the way by which you distinguish north coordinates from south coordinates and east coordinates from west coordinates. Think of it as a grid system. 3 to the left of the X axis is the same distance as 3 to the right, just in the opposite direction.

Essentially, the negative sign is irrelevant, as far as the numbers are concerned, until you need to specify in which direction from the axis you need to be going.

]]> By: gonar http://jamesbadger.ca/2006/03/06/dms-and-radians/comment-page-1/#comment-1077 gonar Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:03:47 +0000 http://jamesbadger.ca/?p=25#comment-1077 it's broken for negative radians it’s broken for negative radians

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