pAIrmatic Lessons

Polar Coordinates and De Moivre's Theorem

Precalculus
Precalculus topicsConic SectionsPolar Coordinates and De Moivre's TheoremVectorsMatrices and Determinants

Polar coordinates

Polar to rectangular
x=rcosθy=rsinθ
Rectangular to polar
r2=x2+y2tanθ=yx
Distance between two points
d=r12+r22−2r1r2cos(θ1−θ2)

Complex numbers in polar form

Polar form
z=a+bi=r(cosθ+isinθ)=rcisθ=reiθ
Multiply
z1z2=r1r2cis(θ1+θ2)
Divide
z1z2=r1r2cis(θ1−θ2)
De Moivre's theorem
zn=rn(cosnθ+isinnθ)
nth roots
zn=rncisθ+2πkn
k = 0, 1, …, n − 1

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