Revolutions to Radians Converter

What Is a Revolution?

A revolution, or turn, is equal to 1 rotation around a circle, or 360°. Revolutions are commonly used to measure the speed of rotation, for example when measuring the revolutions per minute (RPM) of a vehicle's engine.

A revolution is sometimes also referred to as a turn, cycle, or complete rotation. Revolutions can be abbreviated as r, and are also sometimes abbreviated as rev or cyc. For example, 1 revolution can be written as 1 r, 1 rev, or 1 cyc.

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What Is a Radian?

A radian is the measurement of angle equal to the length of an arc divided by the radius of the circle or arc.^[1] 1 radian is equal to 180/π degrees, or about 57.29578°. There are about 6.28318 radians in a circle.

The radian is the SI derived unit for angle in the metric system. Radians can be abbreviated as rad, and are also sometimes abbreviated as ^c, r, or ^R. For example, 1 radian can be written as 1 rad, 1 ^c, 1 r, or 1 ^R.

Radians are often expressed using their definition. The formula to find an angle in radians is θ = s/r, where the angle in radians θ is equal to the arc length s divided by the radius r. Thus, radians may also be expressed as the formula of arc length over the radius.

Radians are also considered to be a "unitless" unit. That is, when multiplying or dividing by radians, the result does not include radians as part of the final units.

For example, when determining the length of an arc for a given angle, we use the formula above, rearranged to be s = θr. If θ is in radians and r is in meters, then the units of s will be meters, not radian-meters. If θ were in degrees, however, then s would have units of degree-meters.

Learn more about radians.