Angle

This article is about angles in geometry. For other uses, see Angle (disambiguation).

An angle enclosed by rays emanating from a vertex.

∠, the angle symbol in Unicode is U+2220.

In planar geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the sides of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle.^[1] Angles formed by two rays lie in a plane, but this plane does not have to be a Euclidean plane. Angles are also formed by the intersection of two planes in Euclidean and other spaces. These are called dihedral angles. Angles formed by the intersection of two curves in a plane are defined as the angle determined by the tangent rays at the point of intersection. Similar statements hold in space, for example, the spherical angle formed by two great circles on a sphere is the dihedral angle between the planes determined by the great circles.

Angle is also used to designate the measure of an angle or of a rotation. This measure is the ratio of the length of a circular arc to its radius. In the case of a geometric angle, the arc is centered at the vertex and delimited by the sides. In the case of a rotation, the arc is centered at the center of the rotation and delimited by any other point and its image by the rotation.

The word angle comes from the Latin word angulus, meaning "corner"; cognate words are the Greek ἀγκύλος (ankylοs), meaning "crooked, curved," and the English word "ankle". Both are connected with the Proto-Indo-European root *ank-, meaning "to bend" or "bow".^[2]

Euclid defines a plane angle as the inclination to each other, in a plane, of two lines which meet each other, and do not lie straight with respect to each other. According to Proclus an angle must be either a quality or a quantity, or a relationship. The first concept was used by Eudemus, who regarded an angle as a deviation from a straight line; the second by Carpus of Antioch, who regarded it as the interval or space between the intersecting lines; Euclid adopted the third concept, although his definitions of right, acute, and obtuse angles are certainly quantitative.^[3]

Identifying angles

In mathematical expressions, it is common to use Greek letters (α, β, γ, θ, φ, ...) to serve as variables standing for the size of some angle. (To avoid confusion with its other meaning, the symbol $π$ is typically not used for this purpose.) Lower case Roman letters (a, b, c, ...) are also used, as are upper case Roman letters in the context of polygons. See the figures in this article for examples.

In geometric figures, angles may also be identified by the labels attached to the three points that define them. For example, the angle at vertex A enclosed by the rays AB and AC (i.e. the lines from point A to point B and point A to point C) is denoted ∠BAC or $\widehat{\rm BAC}.$ Sometimes, where there is no risk of confusion, the angle may be referred to simply by its vertex ("angle A").

Potentially, an angle denoted, say, ∠BAC might refer to any of four angles: the clockwise angle from B to C, the anticlockwise angle from B to C, the clockwise angle from C to B, or the anticlockwise angle from C to B, where the direction in which the angle is measured determines its sign (see Positive and negative angles). However, in many geometrical situations it is obvious from context that the positive angle less than or equal to 180 degrees is meant, and no ambiguity arises. Otherwise, a convention may be adopted so that ∠BAC always refers to the anticlockwise (positive) angle from B to C, and ∠CAB to the anticlockwise (positive) angle from C to B.

Types of angles

"Oblique angle" redirects here. For the cinematographic technique, see Dutch angle.

Individual angles

Right angle.

Reflex angle.

Acute (a), obtuse (b), and straight (c) angles. The acute and obtuse angles are also known as oblique angles.

Angles smaller than a right angle (less than 90°) are called acute angles ("acute" meaning "sharp").
An angle equal to 1/4 turn (90° or $π$ /2 radians) is called a right angle. Two lines that form a right angle are said to be normal, orthogonal, or perpendicular.
Angles larger than a right angle and smaller than a straight angle (between 90° and 180°) are called obtuse angles ("obtuse" meaning "blunt").
An angle equal to 1/2 turn (180° or $π$ radians) is called a straight angle.
Angles larger than a straight angle but less than 1 turn (between 180° and 360°) are called reflex angles.
An angle equal to 1 turn (360° or 2 $π$ radians) is called a full angle, complete angle, or a perigon.
Angles that are not right angles or a multiple of a right angle are called oblique angles.

The names, intervals, and measured units are shown in a table below:

Units	Interval
Name	acute	right angle	obtuse	straight	reflex	perigon
Turns	(0, 1/4)	1/4	(1/4, 1/2)	1/2	(1/2, 1)	1
Radians	(0, 1/2 $π$ )	1/2 $π$	(1/2 $π$ , $π$ )	$π$	( $π$ , 2 $π$ )	2 $π$
Degrees	(0, 90)°	90°	(90, 180)°	180°	(180, 360)°	360°
Gons	(0, 100)^g	100^g	(100, 200)^g	200^g	(200, 400)^g	400^g

Equivalence angle pairs

Angles that have the same measure (i.e. the same magnitude) are said to be equal or congruent. An angle is defined by its measure and is not dependent upon the lengths of the sides of the angle (e.g. all right angles are equal in measure).
Two angles which share terminal sides, but differ in size by an integer multiple of a turn, are called coterminal angles.
A reference angle is the acute version of any angle determined by repeatedly subtracting or adding straight angle (1/2 turn, 180°, or $π$ radians), to the results as necessary, until the magnitude of result is an acute angle, a value between 0 and 1/4 turn, 90°, or $π$ /2 radians. For example, an angle of 30 degrees has a reference angle of 30 degrees, and an angle of 150 degrees also has a reference angle of 30 degrees (180 – 150). An angle of 750 degrees has a reference angle of 30 degrees (750 – 720).^[4]

Vertical and adjacent angle pairs

Angles A and B are a pair of vertical angles; angles C and D are a pair of vertical angles.

When two straight lines intersect at a point, four angles are formed. Pairwise these angles are named according to their location relative to each other.

A pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting straight lines that form an "X"-like shape, are called vertical angles or opposite angles or vertically opposite angles. They are abbreviated as vert. opp. ∠s.^[5]

The equality of vertically opposite angles is called the vertical angle theorem. Eudemus of Rhodes attributed the proof to Thales of Miletus.^[6]^[7] The proposition showed that since both of a pair of vertical angles are supplementary to both of the adjacent angles, the vertical angles are equal in measure. According to a historical Note,^[7] when Thales visited Egypt, he observed that whenever the Egyptians drew two intersecting lines, they would measure the vertical angles to make sure that they were equal. Thales concluded that one could prove that all vertical angles are equal if one accepted some general notions such as: all straight angles are equal, equals added to equals are equal, and equals subtracted from equals are equal.

In the figure, assume the measure of Angle A = x. When two adjacent angles form a straight line, they are supplementary. Therefore, the measure of Angle C = 180 − x. Similarly, the measure of Angle D = 180 − x. Both Angle C and Angle D have measures equal to 180 − x and are congruent. Since Angle B is supplementary to both Angles C and D, either of these angle measures may be used to determine the measure of Angle B. Using the measure of either Angle C or Angle D we find the measure of Angle B = 180 − (180 − x) = 180 − 180 + x = x. Therefore, both Angle A and Angle B have measures equal to x and are equal in measure.

Angles A and B are adjacent.

Adjacent angles, often abbreviated as adj. ∠s, are angles that share a common vertex and edge but do not share any interior points. In other words, they are angles that are side by side, or adjacent, sharing an "arm". Adjacent angles which sum to a right angle, straight angle or full angle are special and are respectively called complementary, supplementary and explementary angles (see "Combine angle pairs" below).

A transversal is a line that intersects a pair of (often parallel) lines and is associated with alternate interior angles, corresponding angles, interior angles, and exterior angles.^[8]

Combining angle pairs

There are three special angle pairs which involve the summation of angles:

Complementary angles are angle pairs whose measures sum to one right angle (1/4 turn, 90°, or $π$ /2 radians). If the two complementary angles are adjacent their non-shared sides form a right angle. In Euclidean geometry, the two acute angles in a right triangle are complementary, because the sum of internal angles of a triangle is 180 degrees, and the right angle itself accounts for ninety degrees.

The adjective complementary is from Latin complementum, associated with the verb complere, "to fill up". An acute angle is "filled up" by its complement to form a right angle.

The difference between an angle and a right angle is termed the complement of the angle.

If angles A and B are complementary, the following relationships hold:

\sin^2A + \sin^2B = 1. \quad \cos^2A + \cos^2B = 1.

\tan A = \cot B. \quad \quad \quad \sec A = \csc B.

(The tangent of an angle equals the cotangent of its complement and its secant equals the cosecant of its complement.)

The prefix "co-" in the names of some trigonometric ratios refers to the word "complementary".

Two angles that sum to a straight angle (1/2 turn, 180°, or $π$ radians) are called supplementary angles.

If the two supplementary angles are adjacent (i.e. have a common vertex and share just one side), their non-shared sides form a straight line. Such angles are called a linear pair of angles.^[9] However, supplementary angles do not have to be on the same line, and can be separated in space. For example, adjacent angles of a parallelogram are supplementary, and opposite angles of a cyclic quadrilateral (one whose vertices all fall on a single circle) are supplementary.

If a point P is exterior to a circle with center O, and if the tangent lines from P touch the circle at points T and Q, then ∠TPQ and ∠TOQ are supplementary.

The sines of supplementary angles are equal. Their cosines and tangents (unless undefined) are equal in magnitude but have opposite signs.

In Euclidean geometry, any sum of two angles in a triangle is supplementary to the third, because the sum of internal angles of a triangle is a straight angle.

Two angles that sum to a complete angle (1 turn, 360°, or 2 $π$ radians) are called explementary angles or conjugate angles.
The difference between an angle and a complete angle is termed the explement of the angle or conjugate of an angle.

The complementary angles a and b (b is the complement of a, and a is the complement of b).

The sum of the reflex angle and the acute angle makes an explementary angle.

The angles a and b are supplementary angles.

Polygon related angles

Internal and external angles.

An angle that is part of a simple polygon is called an interior angle if it lies on the inside of that simple polygon. A simple concave polygon has at least one interior angle that is a reflex angle.
In Euclidean geometry, the measures of the interior angles of a triangle add up to $π$ radians, 180°, or 1/2 turn; the measures of the interior angles of a simple convex quadrilateral add up to 2 $π$ radians, 360°, or 1 turn. In general, the measures of the interior angles of a simple convex polygon with n sides add up to (n − 2) $π$ radians, or 180(n − 2) degrees, (2n − 4) right angles, or (n/2 − 1) turn.
The supplement of an interior angle is called an exterior angle, that is, an interior angle and an exterior angle form a linear pair of angles. There are two exterior angles at each vertex of the polygon, each determined by extending one of the two sides of the polygon that meet at the vertex; these two angles are vertical angles and hence are equal. An exterior angle measures the amount of rotation one has to make at a vertex to trace out the polygon.^[10] If the corresponding interior angle is a reflex angle, the exterior angle should be considered negative. Even in a non-simple polygon it may be possible to define the exterior angle, but one will have to pick an orientation of the plane (or surface) to decide the sign of the exterior angle measure.
In Euclidean geometry, the sum of the exterior angles of a simple convex polygon will be one full turn (360°). The exterior angle here could be called a supplementary exterior angle. Exterior angles are commonly used in Logo Turtle Geometry when drawing regular polygons.
In a triangle, the bisectors of two exterior angles and the bisector of the other interior angle are concurrent (meet at a single point).^[11]^:p.149
In a triangle, three intersection points, each of an external angle bisector with the opposite extended side, are collinear.^[11]^{:p. 149}
In a triangle, three intersection points, two of them between an interior angle bisector and the opposite side, and the third between the other exterior angle bisector and the opposite side extended, are collinear.^[11]^{:p. 149}
Some authors use the name exterior angle of a simple polygon to simply mean the explement exterior angle (not supplement!) of the interior angle.^[12] This conflicts with the above usage.

Plane related angles

The angle between two planes (such as two adjacent faces of a polyhedron) is called a dihedral angle. It may be defined as the acute angle between two lines normal to the planes.
The angle between a plane and an intersecting straight line is equal to ninety degrees minus the angle between the intersecting line and the line that goes through the point of intersection and is normal to the plane.

Measuring angles

The size of a geometric angle is usually characterized by the magnitude of the smallest rotation that maps one of the rays into the other. Angles that have the same size are said to be equal or congruent or equal in measure.

In some contexts, such as identifying a point on a circle or describing the orientation of an object in two dimensions relative to a reference orientation, angles that differ by an exact multiple of a full turn are effectively equivalent. In other contexts, such as identifying a point on a spiral curve or describing the cumulative rotation of an object in two dimensions relative to a reference orientation, angles that differ by a non-zero multiple of a full turn are not equivalent.

The measure of angle θ (in radians) is the quotient of s and r.

In order to measure an angle θ, a circular arc centered at the vertex of the angle is drawn, e.g. with a pair of compasses. The ratio of the length s of the arc by the radius r of the circle is the measure of the angle in radians.

The measure of the angle in another angular unit is then obtained by multiplying its measure in radians by the scaling factor k/2 $π$ , where k is the measure of a complete turn in the chosen unit (for example 360 for degrees or 400 for gradians):

\theta = k \frac{s}{2\pi r}.

The value of θ thus defined is independent of the size of the circle: if the length of the radius is changed then the arc length changes in the same proportion, so the ratio s/r is unaltered. (Proof. The formula above can be rewritten as k = θr/s. One turn, for which θ = n units, corresponds to an arc equal in length to the circle's circumference, which is 2 $π$ r, so s = 2 $π$ r. Substituting n for θ and 2 $π$ r for s in the formula, results in k = nr/2 $π$ r = n/2 $π$ .) ^{[Note 1]}

Angle addition postulate

The angle addition postulate states that if B is in the interior of angle AOC, then

m\angle AOC = m\angle AOB + m\angle BOC

The measure of the angle AOC is the sum of the measure of angle AOB and the measure of angle BOC. In this postulate it does not matter in which unit the angle is measured as long as each angle is measured in the same unit.

Units

Positive and negative angles

Although the definition of the measurement of an angle does not support the concept of a negative angle, it is frequently useful to impose a convention that allows positive and negative angular values to represent orientations and/or rotations in opposite directions relative to some reference.

In a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, an angle is typically defined by its two sides, with its vertex at the origin. The initial side is on the positive x-axis, while the other side or terminal side is defined by the measure from the initial side in radians, degrees, or turns. With positive angles representing rotations toward the positive y-axis and negative angles representing rotations toward the negative y-axis. When Cartesian coordinates are represented by standard position, defined by the x-axis rightward and the y-axis upward, positive rotations are anticlockwise and negative rotations are clockwise.

In many contexts, an angle of −θ is effectively equivalent to an angle of "one full turn minus θ". For example, an orientation represented as −45° is effectively equivalent to an orientation represented as 360° − 45° or 315°. However, a rotation of −45° would not be the same as a rotation of 315°.

In three-dimensional geometry, "clockwise" and "anticlockwise" have no absolute meaning, so the direction of positive and negative angles must be defined relative to some reference, which is typically a vector passing through the angle's vertex and perpendicular to the plane in which the rays of the angle lie.

In navigation, bearings are measured relative to north. By convention, viewed from above, bearing angle are positive clockwise, so a bearing of 45° corresponds to a north-east orientation. Negative bearings are not used in navigation, so a north-west orientation corresponds to a bearing of 315°.

Alternative ways of measuring the size of an angle

There are several alternatives to measuring the size of an angle by the angle of rotation. The grade of a slope, or gradient is equal to the tangent of the angle, or sometimes (rarely) the sine. A gradient is often expressed as a percentage. For very small values (less than 5%), the grade of a slope is approximately the measure of the angle in radians.

In rational geometry the spread between two lines is defined at the square of the sine of the angle between the lines. Since the sine of an angle and the sine of its supplementary angle are the same, any angle of rotation that maps one of the lines into the other leads to the same value for the spread between the lines.

Astronomical approximations

Astronomers measure angular separation of objects in degrees from their point of observation.

0.5° is approximately the width of the sun or moon.
1° is approximately the width of a little finger at arm's length.
10° is approximately the width of a closed fist at arm's length.
20° is approximately the width of a handspan at arm's length.

These measurements clearly depend on the individual subject, and the above should be treated as rough rule of thumb approximations only.

Angles between curves

The angle between the two curves at P is defined as the angle between the tangents A and B at P.

The angle between a line and a curve (mixed angle) or between two intersecting curves (curvilinear angle) is defined to be the angle between the tangents at the point of intersection. Various names (now rarely, if ever, used) have been given to particular cases:—amphicyrtic (Gr. ἀμφί, on both sides, κυρτός, convex) or cissoidal (Gr. κισσός, ivy), biconvex; xystroidal or sistroidal (Gr. ξυστρίς, a tool for scraping), concavo-convex; amphicoelic (Gr. κοίλη, a hollow) or angulus lunularis, biconcave.^[17]

Bisecting and trisecting angles

Main articles: Bisection § Angle bisector and Angle trisection

The ancient Greek mathematicians knew how to bisect an angle (divide it into two angles of equal measure) using only a compass and straightedge, but could only trisect certain angles. In 1837 Pierre Wantzel showed that for most angles this construction cannot be performed.

Dot product and generalisation

In the Euclidean space, the angle θ between two Euclidean vectors u and v is related to their dot product and their lengths by the formula

\mathbf{u} \cdot \mathbf{v} = \cos ( \theta ) \ \left\| \mathbf{u} \right\| \ \left\| \mathbf{v} \right\| .

This formula supplies an easy method to find the angle between two planes (or curved surfaces) from their normal vectors and between skew lines from their vector equations.

Inner product

To define angles in an abstract real inner product space, we replace the Euclidean dot product ( · ) by the inner product $\langle \cdot , \cdot \rangle$ , i.e.

\langle \mathbf{u} , \mathbf{v} \rangle = \cos(\theta)\ \left\| \mathbf{u} \right\|\ \left\| \mathbf{v} \right\| .

In a complex inner product space, the expression for the cosine above may give non-real values, so it is replaced with

\operatorname{Re} \left( \langle \mathbf{u} , \mathbf{v} \rangle \right) = \cos(\theta)\ \left\| \mathbf{u} \right\| \ \left\| \mathbf{v} \right\| .

or, more commonly, using the absolute value, with

\left| \langle \mathbf{u} , \mathbf{v} \rangle \right| = | \cos(\theta) | \ \left\| \mathbf{u} \right\| \ \left\| \mathbf{v} \right\| .

The latter definition ignores the direction of the vectors and thus describes the angle between one-dimensional subspaces $\operatorname{span}(\mathbf{u})$ and $\operatorname{span}(\mathbf{v})$ spanned by the vectors $\mathbf{u}$ and $\mathbf{v}$ correspondingly.

Angles between subspaces

The definition of the angle between one-dimensional subspaces $\operatorname{span}(\mathbf{u})$ and $\operatorname{span}(\mathbf{v})$ given by

\left| \langle \mathbf{u} , \mathbf{v} \rangle \right| = | \cos(\theta) | \ \left\| \mathbf{u} \right\| \ \left\| \mathbf{v} \right\|

in a Hilbert space can be extended to subspaces of any finite dimensions. Given two subspaces $\mathcal{U}$ , $\mathcal{W}$ with $\operatorname{dim} ( \mathcal{U}) := k \leq \operatorname{dim} ( \mathcal{W}) := l$ , this leads to a definition of $k$ angles called canonical or principal angles between subspaces.

Angles in Riemannian geometry

In Riemannian geometry, the metric tensor is used to define the angle between two tangents. Where U and V are tangent vectors and g_ij are the components of the metric tensor G,

\cos \theta = \frac{g_{ij}U^iV^j} {\sqrt{ \left| g_{ij}U^iU^j \right| \left| g_{ij}V^iV^j \right|}}.

Angles in geography and astronomy

In geography, the location of any point on the Earth can be identified using a geographic coordinate system. This system specifies the latitude and longitude of any location in terms of angles subtended at the centre of the Earth, using the equator and (usually) the Greenwich meridian as references.

In astronomy, a given point on the celestial sphere (that is, the apparent position of an astronomical object) can be identified using any of several astronomical coordinate systems, where the references vary according to the particular system. Astronomers measure the angular separation of two stars by imagining two lines through the centre of the Earth, each intersecting one of the stars. The angle between those lines can be measured, and is the angular separation between the two stars.

In both geography and astronomy, a sighting direction can be specified in terms of a vertical angle such as altitude /elevation with respect to the horizon as well as the azimuth with respect to north.

Astronomers also measure the apparent size of objects as an angular diameter. For example, the full moon has an angular diameter of approximately 0.5°, when viewed from Earth. One could say, "The Moon's diameter subtends an angle of half a degree." The small-angle formula can be used to convert such an angular measurement into a distance/size ratio.

Notes

↑ This approach requires however an additional proof that the measure of the angle does not change with changing radius r, in addition to the issue of "measurement units chosen." A smoother approach is to measure the angle by the length of the corresponding unit circle arc. Here "unit" can be chosen to be dimensionless in the sense that it is the real number 1 associated with the unit segment on the real line. See R. Dimitric for instance.^[13]

References

Citations

↑ Sidorov, L.A. (2001), "Angle", in Hazewinkel, Michiel, Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer, ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
↑ Slocum, Jonathan (2007), Preliminary Indo-European lexicon — Pokorny PIE data, University of Texas research department: linguistics research center, retrieved 2 Feb 2010
↑ Chisholm 1911; Heiberg 1908, pp. 177–178
↑ http://www.mathwords.com/r/reference_angle.htm
↑ Wong, TW; Wong, MS. "Angles in Intersecting and Parallel Lines". New Century Mathematics 1B (1 ed.). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. pp. 161–163. ISBN 978-0-19-800176-8.
↑ Euclid (c. 300 BC). The Elements. Check date values in: |date= (help) Proposition I:13.
1 2 William G. Shute, William W. Shirk, George F. Porter, Plane and Solid Geometry, American Book Company (1960) pp. 25-27
↑ Jacobs, Harold R. (1974), Geometry, W.H. Freeman, p. 255, ISBN 0-7167-0456-0
↑ Jacobs, Harold R. (1974), Geometry, W.H. Freeman, p. 97, ISBN 0-7167-0456-0
↑ Henderson, David W.; Taimina, Daina (2005), Experiencing Geometry / Euclidean and Non-Euclidean with History (3rd ed.), Pearson Prentice Hall, p. 104, ISBN 9780131437487
1 2 3 Johnson, Roger A. Advanced Euclidean Geometry, Dover Publications, 2007.
↑ D. Zwillinger, ed. (1995), CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, p. 270 as cited in Weisstein, Eric W., "Exterior Angle", MathWorld.
↑ R. Dimitric: On angles and angle measurements
↑ J.H. Jeans (1947), The Growth of Physical Science, p.7; Francis Dominic Murnaghan (1946), Analytic Geometry, p.2
↑ ooPIC Programmer's Guide (archived) www.oopic.com
↑ Angles, integers, and modulo arithmetic Shawn Hargreaves blogs.msdn.com
↑ Chisholm 1911; Heiberg 1908, p. 178

Bibliography

"Angle", Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. II, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1878, p. 29–30 .
"Angle", Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911, p. 14 .
Heiberg, Johan Ludvig (1908). Heath, T. L., ed. Euclid. The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Angles (geometry).

Angle Bisectors in a Quadrilateral at cut-the-knot
Constructing a triangle from its angle bisectors at cut-the-knot
Various angle constructions with compass and straightedge
Complementary Angles animated demonstration. With interactive applet
Supplementary Angles animated demonstration. With interactive applet
Angle definition pages with interactive applets that are also useful in a classroom setting. Math Open Reference
Construction of an angle Site geometry

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