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 theta. In a polar coordinate system, you go a certain distance r horizontally from the origin on the polar axis, and then shift that r an angle theta 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 theta's in radians):

math.kennesaw.edumath.kennesaw.edu

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

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

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