A 

parametric equation is where the x and y coordinates

are both written in terms of another letter. This is called
a parameter and is usually given the letter t or θ. (θ is
normally used when the parameter is an angle, and is
measured from the positive x-axis.)

Drawing the graph

To draw a parametric graph it is easiest to make a table

and then plot the points:

Example 1

Plot the graph of the following parametric equation:

x = t2, y = 2t.

The first thing to do is create a table which will tell you

what x and y are for a selection of values of t:

Now we can plot the points (4, -4), (1, -2), (0, 0)... etc to get
the curve:
Example 2

Plot the graph of the following parametric equation:

x=3sinθ, y=4cosθ

As θ is used in the equation, we know this is an angle.

Hence, we insert values of θ which are likely to give us a
good range of points to plot on our graph:

Finding the Cartesian

equation

There are two techniques

for finding the Cartesian
Equation from
a Parametric equation,
depending on whether the
parameter is 't' or 'θ'.
If the parameter is 't' then rewrite one equation as t =...
and substitute this into the other equation (see example
1).

If the parameter is θ, use a trigonometric relationship like

sin2θ + cos2θ = 1 to eliminate the letter θ (see example 2).

In these examples we shall use the same parametric

equations we used above.

Example 1

So, to find the Cartesian equation use t = y/2 to get:

Now we can just re-arrange to get the equation in terms

of y:

This is the equation of the parabola.

Example 2
This is the Cartesian equation for the ellipse.

Finding the gradient of a parametric curve

In order to understand this you will need to have a good

grasp of differentiation (see the differentiation topic).

To find the gradient from a parametric equation we

use the chain rule (which is explained in the
differentiation topic):

This is easiest to understand using our examples.

Example 1
This means that when t = -2, (for example), the gradient
at (4, -4) is -0.5

Example 2