Algebra and Trigonometry, 5th Edition

8.4 Polar Coordinates and Graphs

• Graph points given their polar coordinates.

• Convert from rectangular coordinates to polar coordinates and from polar coordinates to rectangular coordinates.

• Convert from rectangular equations to polar equations and from polar equations to rectangular equations.

• Graph polar equations.

Polar Coordinates

All graphing throughout this text has been done with rectangular coordinates, $\left(x,y\right)$, in the Cartesian coordinate system. We now introduce the polar coordinate system. As shown in the diagram on the following page, any point P has rectangular coordinates $\left(x,y\right)$ and polar coordinates $\left(r,\theta \right)$. On a polar graph, the origin is called the pole, and the positive half of the x-axis is called the polar axis. The point ...