In article ,
Morris Dovey wrote:

"Robert Bonomi" wrote in message
...

The MS-Windows "calculator" (Start-Programs-Accessories-Calculator)
does
trig functions, if you click on the 'View' button and select "Scientific'.

"Conveniently", it takes angle input in 'degrees', by default. you don't
have to go through the nonsense of converting to 'radians'.

On the other hand, if your scientific calculator has a "pi" button, you can
start with 2*pi instead of 360 and work in radians from the git-go without
any conversions.

Some people do the 'trivial 'steps in their head (e.g. 8 sides == 45 degrees,
12 sides == 30 degrees) first, and go to the calculator only for the
messy parts. It tends to be faster that way. and you have a 'feel' for
the reasonableness of what you're dealing with.

Radians "make sense" when they're expressed in algebraic terms -- e.g.
"pi/4"; but as numerical quantities, they leave a lot to be desired insofar
as 'intuitive', shall we say, interpretation goes.

(I'm picking this nit because I'm aware that John is also working to develop
expertise with a programmable woodworking tool whose control software trig
functions use radian measure only.)

Me, I figure that anybody who knows what radians are, and chooses to use
them, would have no trouble figuring out what to do, given that the Windows
calculator (in scientific mode) has radio buttons for using degrees/radians/
gradians, _and_ a PI button that carries it out to more than the 20 decimal
places that I have memorized. grin