CALCULUS VOLUME 3

Chapter 1 PARAMETRIC EQUATIONS AND POLAR COORDINATES

Hairus Abdullah, Ph.D
Parametric Equations FIGURE 1.1

The chambered nautilus is a marine animal that lives in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Scientists think they have existed
mostly unchanged for about 500 million years.(credit: modification of work by Jitze Couperus, Flickr)
FIGURE 1.2

Earth’s orbit around the Sun in one year.

FIGURE 1.3

Coordinate axes superimposed on the orbit of Earth.

 x  f t  y  g t  at b

has initial point (f (a), g (a)) and terminal point (f (b), g (b)).
FIGURE 1.4
Graph of the plane curve described by
the parametric equations in part a.
 FIGURE 1.5
Graph of the plane curve described by
the parametric equations in part b.
 FIGURE 1.6

Graph of the plane curve described by the parametric equations in part c.

Eliminating the parameter
FIGURE 1.7
Graph of the plane curve described by
the parametric equations in part a.
 FIGURE 1.8
Graph of the plane curve described by
the parametric equations in part b.
TRY TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM

Show that x = h + r cos θ & y = k + r sin θ represents the equation of a circle.

Cycloids and Other Parametric Curves

FIGURE 1.9

A wheel traveling along a road without slipping; the point on the edge of the wheel traces out a cycloid.
 x  OT  PQ  r   r sin  r   sin 
y  TC  QC  r  r cos   r 1  cos  

Although it is possible to eliminate the parameter θ from Equations, the resulting Cartesian
equation in x and y is very complicated :
x  r cos 1(1  y / r )  2ry  y 2 gives just half of one arch and not as convenient

to work with as the parametric equations.

FIGURE 1.10
Graph of the hypocycloid described by
the parametric equations shown.

The period of the second trigonometric function

 FIGURE 1.11
Graph of various hypocycloids
corresponding to different values of a/b.
Investigate the family of curves with parametric equations
x  a  cos t y  a tan t  sin t
What do these curves have in common? How does the shape change as a increases?

We use a graphing calculator (or computer) produce the graphs for the cases a = −2, −1,
−0.5, −0.2, 0, 0.5, 1, and 2 shown in Figure 19.

Members of the family x = a + cos t, y = a tan t + sin t, all graphed in the viewing rectangle [−4, 4] by [−4, 4]
 θ

As the point moves around the circle, the point traces out the “witch of Agnesi” curve for the given circle.

The goal of this project is to parameterize the witch using θ as a parameter. To do this, write equations
for x and y in terms of only θ.
HOMEWORKS (OPENSTAX CALCULUS-3):

Exercise 1.1:
No. 5, 10, 20, 22