How do you plot the point (3,150o) on a polar graph?

1 Answer
Dec 23, 2017

see explanation.

Explanation:

150 is coterminal to 210, so locate 210 on your coordinate plane. It's 30 past 180 in the counterclockwise direction. Imagine standing at the origin facing 210. If r is positive you would walk forward into QIII but since r is negative you're going to walk backward into QI. Walk 3 units backward into QI. This is equivalent to facing 30 and walking forward 3 units so another representation of this point is (3,30).

Since we can convert polar to rectangular, we can also find the rectangular point:

x=rcos(θ)
x=3cos(210)=3(32)=332

y=rsin(θ)
y=3sin(210)=3(12)=32

So you end up at the point (332,32)