Polar Coordinate System

In mathematics, the polar coordinate system is a two-dimensional coordinate system in which each point on a plane is determined by a distance from a fixed point and an angle from a fixed direction.

The fixed point (analogous to the origin of a Cartesian system) is called the pole, and the ray from the pole in the fixed direction is the polar axis. The distance from the pole is called the radial coordinate or radius, and the angle is the angular coordinate, polar angle, or azimuth.

Read more about Polar Coordinate System:  History, Conventions, Converting Between Polar and Cartesian Coordinates, Polar Equation of A Curve, Complex Numbers, Calculus, Connection To Spherical and Cylindrical Coordinates, Applications

Famous quotes containing the words polar and/or system:

    Professor Fate: My apologies. There’s a polar bear in our car.
    Arthur Ross. Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon)

    Short of a wholesale reform of college athletics—a complete breakdown of the whole system that is now focused on money and power—the women’s programs are just as doomed as the men’s are to move further and further away from the academic mission of their colleges.... We have to decide if that’s the kind of success for women’s sports that we want.
    Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)