How do you graph r=3+3cosθ on a graphing utility?

1 Answer
Oct 25, 2017

Convert to rectangular form:

x2+y2=3x2+y2+x

Explanation:

Given:

r=3+3cosθ

Convert from polar to rectangular coordinates using:

r=x2+y2

x=rcosθ

So multiplying the given equation by r we find:

x2+y2=r2=3r+3rcosθ=3x2+y2+x

So we can put the equation:

x2+y2=3x2+y2+x

into our graphing utility to get:

graph{x^2+y^2=3sqrt(x^2+y^2)+x [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

Note carefully that this is not a circle.