Polar Coordinates

GOALS:
Usingpolarcoordinatescansimplifycomplicatedrectangular
equations.Studentswillconvertfromrectangulartopolar
andviceversa.

The Language of Polar Graphs

Apolarcoordinatesystemisasystemtoplotpointsina
planewithapointOinthecenterofacirculargrid.

ThePoleisthepointO,theorigin.
PolarAxisthehorizontalrayfromOpole(origin)to
theright.
PolarCoordinatesofeachpointintheplane
r=DirecteddistancefromOtoP.
=Directedangleinacounterclockwisedirection
frompolaraxistoOP.
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Plotting Points in the

Polar Coordinate System

A.

EX#1:Plotthepointswiththegivenpolarcoordinates.

A.

C.

B.

D.

Finding all Polar Coordinates of a Point

EX#2:Plotthepoint
Findthreeadditionalpolarrepresentationsofthis
pointon

or

B.Writetherestofthepossibilities:

Coordinate Conversion

Thepolarcoordinatesarerelatedtothe
rectangularcoordinatesasfollows:

EX#3:Findtherectangularcoordinatesofthepointswith
thegivenpolarcoordinates.Useand

A.

B.

Converting Rectangular to
Polar Coordinates
EX#4:Findtwopolarcoordinatepairsforthepointswith
givenrectangularcoordinates.

Use:and
Plotthepointsonbothcoordinategrids.

A.

B.

Equation Conversion from Polar Form

to Rectangular Form

Ex#5A:Convertr=4torectangularformandidentify
thegraph.Supportyouranswerwithapolargraphing
utility.

Ex#5B:

Ex#5C:

Converting Equations from Rectangular

to Polar Form

EX#6:Convert

topolarform.

EX#7:FindingDistanceUsingPolarCoordinates
Radardetectstwoairplanesatthesamealtitude.Their
polarcoordinatesareand

Howfarapartaretheairplanes?
UsetheLawofCosines:

EXITTICKET:
1.Whataretherectangularcoordinatesfor

2.Findthepolarcoordinatesforthepoint

3.Converttorectangularform.Identifythegraph.

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