Who we are
We are polar coordinates.
1
CARTESIAN COORDINATES
If you have a point, you can tell someone where it is by giving it an x and y value (x, y). That is, how far across and how far up you have to go to get there.
In this example the point is about 4 steps across and 3 steps up or (4, 3).
2
POLAR COORDINATES
But this isn’t the only way to say where a point is. You could instead say how far away something is and how the angle you have to turn to be facing it. We can write this as r (for the radius) and Θ (theta for the angle) so it looks like (r, Θ).
In this example the point is 5 steps away at an angle of approximately 37°. We say it has a polar coordinate of
(5, 37).
3
GRAPHING
We can graph polar coordinates on a polar grid like the one below. By convention, the angles are measured in radians which are proportions of π. 2π is equal to 360 degrees, or a full revolution.
