Talk:Degree (angle)

Whooo
Who did come up with the invention? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.149.246.129 (talk) 07:43, 7 April 2005 (UTC)


 * As well as who, what time was the system invented/adopted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JayDee (talk • contribs) 13:13, 2 May 2005 (UTC)


 * My little tidbit about the calendar may provide some clues. - Nolan Eakins — Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.224.249.151 (talk) 09:33, 21 June 2005 (UTC)


 * I doubt there were too many peoples who literally thought the year consisted of 360 days. Rather, 360 was a conveniently round number (especially in terms of a sexagesimal numbering system) which was CLOSE to the number of days in a year...AnonMoos 01:44, 29 October 2005 (UTC)


 * According to my old maths teacher they calculated the number of days in a year by lighting a candle everyday at dusk and putting it out at sunrise then saving up the bits that were left over a few years and comparing the lengths. Obviously this method wasnt very accurate hence 360 instead of 365(point whatever). Probably an urban myth but maybe someone can confirm/refute ? 213.40.112.230 (talk) 20:16, 23 September 2008 (UTC)


 * This is so overwrought to be patently absurd... it would have been rather easier to just, you know; count the number of days. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.131.44.14 (talk) 23:49, 2 November 2010 (UTC)


 * They wouldn't be able to count the number of days because they wouldn't know when to stop counting. If this is true, then I'd imagine they use the candles to determine the length of days.  Lining up the candles in the order burned, they would be able to see a sinusoidal wave of sorts.  One wavelengh would then equal one year and the number of candles in a wavelenth would be the number of days in a year.  Of course, this wouldn't be exactly accurate because it would be near impossible to light and put out the candles exactly at dusk and dawn each day.  It's really not so absurd as you might think.  I have never heard of this theory before so I don't really have anything substantial to back up this hypothesis.  It's an interesting idea though. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.44.89.231 (talk • contribs) 00:27, 28 September 2011


 * Per the wiki articles on candles and the history of trig, candles did not appear in Europe or the middle east until a few hundred years after the 360 degree circle was known to be established at the latest. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.63.69.193 (talk) 07:54, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

whyyy
why is each degree divided into 60 parts and each minute into sixty seconds??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.153.52.68 (talk) 19:22, 25 February 2006 (UTC)


 * This is pure speculation, but these subdivisions may also go back to the Babylonian base-60 system. If so, they defined minutes and seconds as naturally as we would define tenths and hundredths of a degree. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Polyparadigm (talk • contribs) 07:47, 29 July 2006 (UTC)


 * i would also like to know why they chose the terms "minutes" and "seconds" - the history section on this page or the sexigesimal page does not address this... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.93.145.61 (talk) 01:12, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I heard that a minute was the first minute (mahy-noot) division of a degree (or hour) and a second is the 2nd. I haven't looked for a source for this, but someone else can if they like. 75.85.51.140 (talk) 09:42, 14 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Minute comes from Latin, minure, that means decrease, and minus has the same origin. Second also comes from Latin, secundus, that means 2nd. It would be interesting to know how old the division of degrees into minutes and seconds is.Entropeter (talk) 10:48, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Older textbooks also talk about thirds and some even fourths Martin of Sheffield (talk) 21:03, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

Other Units II
Besides degrees of sixtywise, and the metric grade and radian, the following divisions are noted.

1. The division of the circle into signs and degrees to match the months and days, is ancient, and separately in Egypt, in the Chaldea, and in China, (in the far east). Such measures are used to record the movements of the sun and the moon and the stars (planets), against the fixed stars. Although 12 signs are usual, 15 or even 36 signs are recorded too.

2. The egyptian zodiac contains 36 decans. The origin of the 24-hour day comes from the count of 24 hours in the 'decimal day', ten hours of sunlight, and hour each of twilights of dawn and dusk, and twelve hours being the rising of twelve decans at night. It was the greeks that made the hours of equal lengths, and divided them against the chaldean fractions.

2. According to Sir Thomas L Heath (A manual of greek mathematics,  p384), the Chaldeans used the division of circles into 360 degrees only for astronomy. Circles in general are rendered as a diameter of 60 ells, with pi=3, gives a circle of 180 ells of 24 digits each. It is Hipparchus who advamced the elliptic division for general use.

3. Angles based on the mil (such as the Swedish and NATO scales), suppose pi is somewhere near 3, and the circle is 1000 units. The use of such says that at 1000 yards, two points separated by a mill is separated by a yard. Pi variously equals 3.15 in Sweden, 3.2 in the NATO countries. In the NATO case, a division with pi=3.2, divides the circle to 6400 mills, which makes the compass points come at 200 mills.

4. An angle-system one encounters on astronomy chards is HMS of right ascession. Here, the circle is divided into 24 hours, of 60 minutes of 60 seconds, rather than 360 degrees. It kind of replicates the standard siderial clock (zenith pointer points to siderial time against RA).

5. Common angles include the use of clock-face units, eg '4-oclock', where up, forward, or north is 12-oclock.

Wendy.krieger (talk) 09:59, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

It is all in the hands
Before all the instruments and theorems listed in this article were available the most used tool for measurement were an individuals hands. Astronomy was no different. There are 9 hands from the horizon to zenith if held at arms length, palms facing so they can be seen and stacked on top of one another during the count. This makes 36 hands in a circle and when each hand is divided into tens then there are 360 divisions. Thus 360 degrees in a circle, 90 in a right angle and so on and so forth. Michael Edwards (Michaelmwe3wm) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelmwe3wm (talk • contribs) 21:47, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Not a protractor
A protractor is a simple instrument used to measure angles, typically on a map. A dial sight or aiming circle is an artillery instrument used to lay a gun in azimuth by means of an aiming point other than the target. It is copiously covered in the relevant professional literature, mostly published by Governments who tend to the be users of artillery. Ugloma is the transliteration of the Russian name.Nfe (talk) 08:46, 2 July 2013 (UTC)


 * First of all, a word of explanation for the benefit of anyone reading this who does not know the history which led to the above comment being posted. It refers to the fact that, in connection with the Russian army's use of a unit of 1⁄6000 of a circle, until a few days ago the article said "this may be seen on a protractor, circa 1900, in the St Petersberg Museum of Artillery", which has been changed to "this may be seen on an 'ugloma' (dial sight or aiming cirle in English), circa 1900, in the St Petersberg Museum of Artillery".
 * I have just spent a considerable amount of time searching for confirmation that this word exists in Russian, and has the meaning you attribute to it. I have looked in two Russian dictionaries that I have, and several online dictionaries. I have searched on Google for "углома" (ugloma) and for various forms that would be expected to be case forms of that word, if it exists, such as "угломах" (uglomakh), "угломой" (uglomoy), "угломов" (uglomov), "угломе" (uglome). The conclusion is perfectly clear: "углома" (ugloma) exists only as the genitive of "углом" (uglom), which means "angle" or "corner", and does not have the meaning you attribute to it at all. Apart from dictionaries saying so, I found numerous actual uses of the word (in various case forms) where the context made it abundantly clear that "angle" or "corner" was the meaning, and not a single one where it could possibly be taken as meaning a measuring instrument. Here are a few examples:, , , and there are many more. The most relevant Russian word I can find is "угломер" (uglomer), which usually means "protractor", but which has a broader range of uses than the usual English meanings of "protractor", and can be used to refer to inclinometers, alidades, and goniometers. Instruments developed from the goniometer are used in the sort of application you refer to, and have been variously referred to in English as "goniometric sights", "aiming circle goniometers", "dial sights", "aiming circles" and "panoramic telescope", so it seems very probable that the Russia "угломер" includes the dial sights and aiming circles that you have given as English equivalents in the article, and I have little doubt that the instrument referred to in the article is some form of goniometer or dial sight.


 * Having said all that, it is really an academic question what the correct Russian word is, because this is the English language Wikipedia, and in the absence of very good reasons for doing otherwise, we should use English. (The article Napoleon refers to the French troops' horses, not to their chevaux; we don't use a French word just because the particular horses happened to be French ones.) Another point is that the present wording of the article is not likely to be very helpful, because most readers will never have heard even of a dial sight or aiming circle, let alone either the mythical "ugloma" or the real "uglomer". I therefore intend to replace the present wording with one which uses the English expressions for the device, and gives a brief explanation of the term. If you disagree with my changes for any reason, please let me know. JamesBWatson (talk) 12:57, 2 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Incidentally, I have also replaced "aiming cirle" with "aiming circle", which I trust is OK. JamesBWatson (talk) 13:05, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

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HP user manual as a reference?
Really? Are the HP calculators' user manuals the best reference for the symbols and conversion factors? And I didn't find the symbol "deg" defined anywhere, it looks more like an abbreviation (which should be "deg." then). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jellby (talk • contribs) 08:35, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

"Bogengrad" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Bogengrad and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 March 5 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. ev iolite  (talk)  04:01, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

"Altgrad" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Altgrad and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 March 5 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. ev iolite  (talk)  04:12, 5 March 2022 (UTC)