Question

How do you find the polar equation for `x^2=12`?

Answer 1

`r^2=12sec^2theta`

Explanation:

Relation between polar coordinates `(r,theta)` and rectangular coordinates is given by `x=rcostheta`, `y=rsintheta`, `r^2=x^2+y^2` and `tantheta=y/x`.

Hence `x^2=12` can be written as `r^2cos^2theta=12`

or `r^2=12sec^2theta`