Given point (6,-10) how do you find the distance of the point from the origin, then find the measure of the angle in standard position whose terminal side contains the point?

1 Answer
Mar 26, 2017

See below

Explanation:

To find the distance to the origin you use the distance formula, d=(x2x1)2+(y2y1)2.

Plugging in the coordinates of the given point and the origin, d=(60)2+(-100)2=136=23411.7

To find the angle, get a reference angle using tan-1(|y||x|) and then analyze the point to find the correct quadrant.

tan-1(106)1.03 and since the point lies on the line below, it is in Quadrant IV. The value of an angle in Quadrant IV is 2πα where α is the reference angle, so the angle for this point is 5.25.

graph{-5x/3 [-1, 23, -11, 1]}