Re: when to write radians

[thomas pfeiffer <thomaspfeiffer2002@YAHOO.COM>]

> I would argue that beginning students should be made
> to understand that an operational definition of a
> radian is not truly dimensionless, but literally
> (meters of arc)/(meters of radius). Mathematically
> dimensionless, but not operationally. The
> "dimensionless" shorthand can all too easily obscure
> the physical meaning of a radian.

You make an excellent point. We want students to
understand the mathematical angle and the operational
angle. However, how do you make the radians disappear
when using v = r*(omega) when calculating linear
velocity from angular velocity and radius?

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