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## Chapter 3 : Parametric Equations and Polar Coordinates

Here are a set of practice problems for the Parametric Equations and Polar Coordinates chapter of the Calculus II notes.

1. If you’d like a pdf document containing the solutions the download tab above contains links to pdf’s containing the solutions for the full book, chapter and section. At this time, I do not offer pdf’s for solutions to individual problems.
2. If you’d like to view the solutions on the web go to the problem set web page, click the solution link for any problem and it will take you to the solution to that problem.

Note that some sections will have more problems than others and some will have more or less of a variety of problems. Most sections should have a range of difficulty levels in the problems although this will vary from section to section.

Here is a list of all the sections for which practice problems have been written as well as a brief description of the material covered in the notes for that particular section.

Parametric Equations and Curves – In this section we will introduce parametric equations and parametric curves (i.e. graphs of parametric equations). We will graph several sets of parametric equations and discuss how to eliminate the parameter to get an algebraic equation which will often help with the graphing process.

Tangents with Parametric Equations – In this section we will discuss how to find the derivatives $$\frac{dy}{dx}$$ and $$\frac{d^{2}y}{dx^{2}}$$ for parametric curves. We will also discuss using these derivative formulas to find the tangent line for parametric curves as well as determining where a parametric curve in increasing/decreasing and concave up/concave down.

Area with Parametric Equations – In this section we will discuss how to find the area between a parametric curve and the $$x$$-axis using only the parametric equations (rather than eliminating the parameter and using standard Calculus I techniques on the resulting algebraic equation).

Arc Length with Parametric Equations – In this section we will discuss how to find the arc length of a parametric curve using only the parametric equations (rather than eliminating the parameter and using standard Calculus techniques on the resulting algebraic equation).

Surface Area with Parametric Equations – In this section we will discuss how to find the surface area of a solid obtained by rotating a parametric curve about the $$x$$ or $$y$$-axis using only the parametric equations (rather than eliminating the parameter and using standard Calculus techniques on the resulting algebraic equation).

Polar Coordinates – In this section we will introduce polar coordinates an alternative coordinate system to the ‘normal’ Cartesian/Rectangular coordinate system. We will derive formulas to convert between polar and Cartesian coordinate systems. We will also look at many of the standard polar graphs as well as circles and some equations of lines in terms of polar coordinates.

Tangents with Polar Coordinates – In this section we will discuss how to find the derivative $$\frac{dy}{dx}$$ for polar curves. We will also discuss using this derivative formula to find the tangent line for polar curves using only polar coordinates (rather than converting to Cartesian coordinates and using standard Calculus techniques).

Area with Polar Coordinates – In this section we will discuss how to the area enclosed by a polar curve. The regions we look at in this section tend (although not always) to be shaped vaguely like a piece of pie or pizza and we are looking for the area of the region from the outer boundary (defined by the polar equation) and the origin/pole. We will also discuss finding the area between two polar curves.

Arc Length with Polar Coordinates – In this section we will discuss how to find the arc length of a polar curve using only polar coordinates (rather than converting to Cartesian coordinates and using standard Calculus techniques).

Surface Area with Polar Coordinates – In this section we will discuss how to find the surface area of a solid obtained by rotating a polar curve about the $$x$$ or $$y$$-axis using only polar coordinates (rather than converting to Cartesian coordinates and using standard Calculus techniques).

Arc Length and Surface Area Revisited – In this section we will summarize all the arc length and surface area formulas we developed over the course of the last two chapters.