Express a Vector in Polar Form - Pre-Calculus

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Question

Write the vector in polar form, .

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Answer

It will be helpful to first draw the vector so we can see what quadrant the angle is in:

Vector 4

Since the vector is pointing up and to the right, it is in the first quadrant. To determine the angle, set up a trig equation with tangent, since the component 5 is opposite and the component 4 is adjacent to the angle we are looking for:

to solve for theta, take the inverse tangent of both sides:

Now we have the direction, and we can solve for the magnitude using Pythagorean Theorem:

take the square root of both sides

The vector in polar form is

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