Notes: Area and Arc Length for Polar Curves (BC Calculus) Show that the area for

the sector of a circle with radius r and central angle is given by A(r, ) = 0.5r2. = 0.5 f()2 Graph the right half of the cardioid r = 1 + sin (what values of did you use?) Approximate the area of the right half of the cardioid r = 1 + sin using 9 circular sectors and using left hand endpoints. (Your answer should be close to but smaller than 2.35619) Write out the sum you used above using sigma notation. What would change if you used more sectors to approximate the area? What is the equivalent of left hand endpoints? Why are right hand endpoints an overestimate in this case? Write down a sum and integral that will yield the true area of the right half of r. Generalize your calculation above to show that area in polar coordinates is given by
b

2
a

f 2 ( )d for in [a,b] (write down the limit of a sum as the number of sectors

tends to infinity). Show that the area of the unit circle is indeed . Show that using isosceles triangles, with the same radii, yields the same formula for area in polar coordinates. (Remember that the integral is with respect to ). Show that the area in the first petal of r = cos 2 is /8. Draw the graphs of r1 = 3 sin and r2 = 1 + sin . Then show that the area inside r1 and outside r2 is . Suppose that r = f(). Then the equations x = r cos = f() cos and y = r sin = f() sin are functions of and so they can be viewed as describing x and y parametrically. Show that
dx dy dr 2 + = r + d d d
2 2 2

Conclude that arc length in polar coordinates is given by L =

dr r + d d
2

Show that the circumference of a circle with radius r is indeed what it should be.