How do I find the distance between the points with polar coordinates (2, 10^circ) and (7, 10^circ)?

1 Answer
Mar 3, 2015

The answer is: 5.

As you can see from this drawing:

GeogebraGeogebra

A and B in polar coordinates are A(OA,alpha) and B(OB,beta).

I have named gamma the angle between the two vectors v_1 and v_2, and, as you can easily see gamma=alpha-beta.
(It's not important if we do alpha-beta or beta-alpha because, at the end, we will calculate the cosine of gamma and cosgamma=cos(-gamma)).

We know, of the triangle AOB, two sides and the angle between them and we have to find the segment AB, that is the distance between A and B.

So we can use the cosine theorem, that says:

a^2=b^2+c^2-2bc cosalpha,

where a,b,c are the three sides of a triangle and alpha is the angle between b and c.

In our case:

AB=sqrt(2^2+7^2-2*2*7*cos0°)=

=sqrt(4+49-28*1)=5.

N.B.:

This is a very particular case, because the angle is the same for both the points (10°), so the two points are on the same line, and their distance could be easily calculate AB=7-2=5!