What is MRAD?

MRAD is the abbreviation used for “milliradians”. Milliradians are units of measurement that pertain to 1/1000 of a radian. The radian is a measure of angular distance or the ratio involving one length of the radius and a similar length of the circle arc. The angle produced with these two items provides the radian. When this particular angle is divided into 1000 mini components then each unit may be labelled as one (1) MRAD or one (1) milliradian.

The concept of measuring angles using units such as radians or “mrads” is attributed to a man named Roger Cotes. It was back in 1714 when Mr. Roger Cotes first discovered this angular measurement concept. Although several other scientists and mathematicians were already believed to have used the arc length in computing angles, Roger Cotes is the one credited for this concept of measuring angles. The term “radian” didn’t start with him though, although he already put in place the standard of using the length of the arc of a circular object as basis for measurements other than the actual angle. “Radian” as a term was used much later in the early 1870s by James Thomson. It was said that Mr. Thomson used this term in some of his test questions.

In computing the value of radians or MRADs, the pi constant is also used. The value of the pi constant is considered very important in doing calculations involving circles. When one wants to have measurements on the circumference or area of a particular circle then the pi constant value is also necessary. Using the radius as the main reference point, each radian may be computed and measured using the quantity of 2x that of the pi constant value. And when one gets the radian’s value, then dividing it by 1000 will get the milliradians or MRAD value.