ASL Signs – angle, right, acute, obtuse, straight, reflex

Today’s #STEMsigns are angles! Angle, and right, acute, obtuse, straight, and reflex angles. Watch to learn how angles are important in our everyday lives, especially in the deaf community and maybe learn a new sign or two!

*Signs shown on #STEMsigns are seen and used by the community and are not created by Atomic Hands. We encourage you to evaluate the sign and adopt or discard it; or develop a new sign!

[Video Description: Barbara, a white woman with curly red hair, is sitting on a tan chair and wearing a black long sleeve cardigan and a green/blue/tan tie-dye shirt in front of a gray background.]

Transcript: Today’s #STEMsigns are angles! Angle. Right angle. Acute angle. Obtuse angle. Straight angle. Reflex angle. Angles are very important in our everyday lives, especially in the deaf community. Why are angles important for our community? VIDEO CHATS!! Have you ever experienced someone committing a video chat faux pas or have you done it yourself? One common faux pas is where we place ourselves in the video and angles play an important role in making the video chat an enjoyable experience! Before I show some examples, I want to do a little bit of review: What is an angle? An angle is two rays sharing a common endpoint. Using circle as a reference, an angle measures the amount of turn in degrees or radians. An angle can go from anywhere from 0° to 90° to 180° to 270° and all the way up to 360°. So, if you video chat with someone and see this… Do you get sick of feeling like you have to turtle yourself in a futile attempt to see the person’s face? Me too! What happened here? The person set their phone or laptop too low, which means their device’s angle of placement is greater than 0° and less than 90°. This type of angle is called an acute angle. Sometimes, you will see this instead…. Instead of lowering your head, you are trying to giraffe yourself to no avail to see their hands and body. What happened here? The person set their device too high, which means their device’s angle of placement is greater than 90° and less than 180°. This type of angle is called an obtuse angle. Sometimes, you will encounter a person who has a habit of doing this… The constant shots of their ceiling is making you feel dizzy. What happened here? The person’s phone keeps falling flat, which means their device’s angle of placement ends up being 180° exactly. This type of angle is called a straight angle. Hopefully, you will never get to experience this… Such a heartbreaking experience to witness, right?! What happened here? The person accidently broke their laptop and the angle of the laptop display is now greater than 180° and less than 360°. This type of angle is called a reflex angle. Do your eyes get tired of struggling to see someone clearly? Here’s the right way to chat that will make your eyes feel like they are on a vacation! What happened here? The device’s angle of placement is at 90° exactly. This type of angle is called a right angle. Now, you see how angles are important for having an easy, clear, and smooth conversation with someone via video! You can also apply what you learned here and tell the person you are video chatting with who is not placing themselves correctly: “You are setting your device at an acute angle, please fix and make it a right angle!”

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