Sometimes it is more convenient to represent a point in a plane by its plane polarcoordinates (r, ), as shown in Figure 3.2a. In this polar coordinate system, r is thedistance from the origin to the point having cartesian coordinates (x, y), and isthe angle between r and a fixed axis. This fixed axis is usually the positive x axis,and is usually measured counterclockwise from it. From the right triangle in Figure3.2b, we find that sin y/r and that cos x/r. (A review of trigonometricfunctions is given in Appendix B.4.) Therefore, starting with the plane polar coordinatesof any point, we can obtain the cartesian coordinates, using the equations
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