What does a polar coordinate system look like?

1 Answer
Dec 4, 2014

A polar coordinate system consists of a polar axis, or a "pole", and an angle, typically thetaθ. In a polar coordinate system, you go a certain distance rr horizontally from the origin on the polar axis, and then shift that rr an angle thetaθ counterclockwise from that axis.

This might be difficult to visualize based on words, so here is a picture (with O being the origin):

www.xpmath.comwww.xpmath.com

This is a more detailed picture, depicting a whole polar coordinate plane (with the thetaθ's in radians):

math.kennesaw.edumath.kennesaw.edu

The origin is in the middle, and each circle represents a different rr (which is actually a radius). If you follow the line of that given circle with radius rr along the angle, you can get polar coordinate points in the form (r,theta)(r,θ)

Note that polar coordinates/equations have Cartesian equivalents shown below:

tutorial.math.lamar.edututorial.math.lamar.edu