How do you change rectangular coordinates to polar coordinates?

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Answer 1 · 2014-09-10T07:14:13

You can use:

$r=sqrt{x^2+y^2}$

If $(x,y)$ is in the first and fourth quadrant,

$theta=tan^{-1}(y/x)$ .

If $(x,y)$ is in the second or third quadrant,

$theta=tan^{-1}(y/x)+pi$ .

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