Protractor Protractor A protractor is a measuring instrument, typically made of transparent plastic or glass, for measuring angles. Most protractors measure angles in degrees (°). Radian-scale protractors measure angles in radians. Most protractors are divided into 180 equal parts. Some precision protractors further divide degrees into arcminutes. They are used for a variety of mechanical and engineering-related applications. One common use is in geometry lessons in schools. Some protractors are simple half-discs. More advanced protractors, such as the bevel protractor, have one or two swinging arms, which can be used to help measure the angle. A bevel protractor is a graduated
Degrees of freedom Degrees of freedom In many scientific fields, the degrees of freedom of a system is the number of parameters of the system that may vary independently. For example, a point in the plane has two degrees of freedom for translation: its two coordinates; a non-infinitesimal object on the plane might have additional degrees of freedoms related to its orientation. In mathematics, this notion is formalized as the dimension of a manifold or an algebraic variety. When "degrees of freedom" is used instead of "dimension", this usually means that the manifold or variety that models the system is only implicitly defined.