What are the components of the vector between the origin and the polar coordinate (5, (pi)/8)?

1 Answer
Dec 19, 2017

(4.619, 1.913)

Explanation:

First off, acknowledge the fact that the question is simply asking you to convert from the polar coordinate to rectangular, namely, x and y components. From here, we will be using a few givens:
(1) Polar coordinates take the form (r, theta)
(2) x = rcos(theta)
(3) y = rsin(theta)

Now we simply evaluate (2) and (3) using r = 5 and theta = pi/8.

Thus, our components are (4.619, 1.913), and we are done.