During the French Revolution, they tried to make a right angle have 100 degrees and even recomputed all new trig tables for this new standard. It obviously did not catch on :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradian

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onraglanroad 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There's no reason you can't have 400 degrees in a circle and therefore 100 for a right angle.

It's a degree scale: you can choose any number you want.

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DrewADesign 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Indeed, gradiens are a scale where a circle is divided into 400 equal parts. Really fucked me up a few times when I got a new calculator and wasn’t paying attention to what the little “grad” meant.

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taftster 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But I can't subdivide 400 in to as many ways as 360. Think about the pie industry. They could be put out of business!!

	▲	hathawsh 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I usually want to cut pies into 14 pieces. Some might want 11 or 13. (17 is just too many.) I demand that we implement a system where a circle is 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 7 * 3 * 11 * 13 = 360360 degrees, so that we can cut pies evenly at anywhere from 2 to 15 slices. If my baker cuts a slice at 25739 degrees, I want a refund! (I'll keep the pie, because the pie is obviously useless.) (720720 might be OK too so we can cut 16 pieces, but honestly, if you're cutting 16 pieces, you're not going to measure. You're just going to divide pieces in half until you have 16. 360360 is the future.)

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ekelsen 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Of course that's true, that doesn't mean you should.

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rurp 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The Indiana pi bill mandated certain mathematical values be changed to the wrong value.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_pi_bill

	▲	JumpCrisscross 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		“The bill, written by a physician and an amateur mathematician, never became law.”

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potato3732842 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Whenever I'm late to a meeting I blame it on the french revolutionary calendar.

	▲	ProjectArcturis 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Lousy Smarch weather

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lexszero_ 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Some pocket calculators from not too long ago supported this unit for some reason, along with radians and degrees. That's the third option on "DRG" button.