SOLUTION: Determine a polar equation for the circle with a radius of sqrt(5) and a center at (1,pi/2).

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Question 1039812: Determine a polar equation for the circle with a radius
of sqrt(5) and a center at (1,pi/2).

Answer by Edwin McCravy(20054)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
First we get the rectangular equation of the circle.

The center is the polar point, which is



That's the point that we get when we 
1. swing counter-clockwise  radians or 90° 
   from the right side of the x-axis, and
2. Go out 1 unit in that direction, which
   turns out to be directly upward.

So that's the same point as the rectangular point (0,1)



So the circle with that center and a radius of  is this
black circle:



which has rectangular equation:

 which becomes

 or






Then to change from rectangular to polar or
vice-versa we draw this:

 

From which we see that 
, , and 

So we replace the x2+y2 by r2 and
the y using  solved for y, 

So the rectangular equation  becomes
the polar equation:



Edwin

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