the conventional divisions of a circle, one being the 360th part of a circle, and thus the units used to measure and express angles.
The width of your finger tip, held at arm's length, is roughly one degree of arc. The knuckle of your thumb represents about two degrees, and the width of your fist about ten degrees. The distance between the tips of your thumb and little finger, spread wide, is around twenty degrees. The "pointers" in Ursa Major are about five degrees apart.
A unit of latitude or longitude, equal to 1/360 of a great circle.
the unit for measuring distance on a map projection. The actual distance can vary somewhat. Since lines of longitude come together at the poles, the distance covered by each degree shrinks. However, as lines of latitude at about the same distance apart, 1 degree of latitude varies only slightly. 1 degree of latitude is about 111 km.
A unit of angular measure equal to 60 arc minutes or 3600 arc seconds. One degree is equal to the diameter of two full Moons.
A unit of measurement in the sky. One degree equals the diameter of two full moons. The length from the horizon to the point straight up in the sky (zenith) is 90 degrees. Most meteors are usually 5 degrees or less in length.
A circle is measured in units called degrees. The entire circle is 360 degrees, half a circle is 180 degrees, and one quarter of a circle is 90 degrees. The "L" shaped 90 degree circle forms what is called a right angle. When examining circular objects, such as spinners, the size of each segment in the circle can be described in degrees .