Polar Equations and Graphs


A Polar Coordinate System is based on a point, called the Pole, and an axis, called the Polar Axis. Any point on the plane is described by the distance from the pole to the point, called the radius,r, and the angle, theta, from the initial position of the polar axis to the final position. Some equations of graphs look much simpler in polar. For example, the equation of the circle X^2 + Y^2=4 , in polar coordinates is R=2. In this video we do a number of examples using polar paper and discuss some symmetry issues.