Polar Coordinates

What are Polar Coordinates?

The polar coordiates or the polar coordinate system is a two-dimensional coordinate system in which each point on a plane is determined by a distance from a reference point and an angle from a reference direction. The reference point (analogous to the origin of a Cartesian system) is called the pole, and the ray from the pole in the reference direction is the polar axis. The distance from the pole is called the radial coordinate or radius, and the angle is called the angular coordinate, polar angle, or azimuth.



Plotting Example

The figure shown here is the polar coordiates graph  to demonstrates the plotting of three points. The purple point has polar coordinates of (6, 60o). The green point has polar coordinates of (2, 170o). And, the purple point has polar coordinates of (8, 260o).

What is Polar Graph Paper?

Polar graph paper, also known as polar coordinate paper, is a graph paper with concentric circles (with equal spacing between them) that are divided into small arcs. In plotting on this paper, one measures a radial distance from the pole (origin) and then rotates an angle of theta degrees from the polar axis (positive x axis).

In polar coordinates, the point (r, O) is described as being a certain distance (r) from the pole (origin) and at a certain angle (O) from the polar axis (positive horizontal axis).



About Polar Coordinates Paper

There are  over four styles of polar coordinates graph paper...

-- six inch graph, black ink, one chart
-- four inch graph, black ink, two charts
-- six inch graph, blue ink, one chart
-- four inch graph, blue ink, two charts

Choose a size and an ink color that will work well with your plot. These charts print on a standard sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. They can be opened and printed with a .pdf document reader such as Adobe Reader. Visit http://www.waterproofpaper.com/graph-paper/polar-graph-paper.shtml