How do you determine the polar coordinates for the intersection point(s) of the following polar equations: $r = 1$ and $r = 2 \cos \theta$ ?

Question

3891 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2015-01-12T13:42:44

You can substitute $r=1$ in the second equation $r=2cos(theta)$ and you'll get:

$1=2cos(theta)$ and
$cos(theta)=1/2$
There are two angles with $cos$ equal to $1/2$ ;
$theta_1=60°$ and $theta_2=300°$ .

The coordinates of your points are then:

$(1;60°)$ and $(1;300°)$

How do you determine the polar coordinates for the intersection point(s) of the following polar equations: r = 1r = 1 and r = 2 \cos \thetar = 2 \cos \theta?