C# Cookbook

1.2. Converting Degrees to Radians

Problem

When using the trigonometric functions of the Math class, all units are in radians. You have one or more angles measured in degrees and want to convert these to radians in order to use them with the members of the Math class.

Solution

To convert a value in degrees to radians, multiply it by π/180:

using System;

public static double ConvertDegreesToRadians (double degrees)
{
    double radians = (Math.PI / 180) * degrees;
    return (radians);
}

Discussion

All of the static trigonometric methods in the Math class use radians as their unit of measure for angles. It is very handy to have conversion routines to convert between radians and degrees, especially when a user is required to enter data in degrees rather than radians.

The equation for converting degrees to radians is shown here:

radians = (Math.PI / 180) * degrees

The static field Math.PI contains the constant π.