CALCULUS II NOTES - Stewart 8th edition

Section 10.1 Curves Defined by Parametric Equations

Recall that many plane curves cannot be fully described as the graph of a function y = f (x)
(for instance, a circle or hyperbola). To get a full description, we can sometimes use an implicit
formulation of the form F (x, y) = c (cf. Section 2.8). Another far more flexible alternative is to
use so-called whereby the x and y coordinates are specified by a
pair of functions of an auxiliary variable t. That is,

x = f (t) y = g(t) for t ∈ I,

where I is a set of real numbers (typically an interval). As t varies through I we obtain a collec-
tion C of points in the plane, which we will refer to as a .

It is often (but not always!) useful to think of t as time, and (f (t), g(t)) as the coordinates of a
moving particle at time t.

Example 10.1-1: Sketch the curve with parametric equations: x = 2t − 4, and y = 3 + t2 where
t ∈ (−∞, ∞)

In the previous example, the vertical line test is satisfied so we “ought” to be able to describe
this curve as a function y = f (x). Indeed,

Not all parametric equations are the graph of a function y = f (x) (or even x = g(y)). Even
when they are, finding f can be difficult.

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Important: On the other hand, any function y = f (x), x ∈ I can be given parametric equations
as follows.
x = t y = f (t) for t ∈ I
t2
For the parabola in our example this gives x = t, y = + 2t + 7. Thus, the same curve (set of
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points) can be given by many different parametric curves!!

Parametric curves have a direction of motion or “orientation” which can be shown by adding
arrows indicating the order in which points are determined as t increases.

Example 10.1-2: Consider the parametric curve

x = t2 y = ln t for t > 0.

(a) Find an equation in x and y for the curve.

(b) Sketch a graph and indicate the orientation using arrows.

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Example 10.1-3: Consider the parametric curve

x = 2 cos t y = 3 sin t for t ≥ 0.

(a) Sketch a graph of the curve and indicate orientation using arrows.
(b) Find an equation in x and y for the curve.

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Example 10.1-4: The Folium of Descartes is the curve given parametrically by

3t 3t2
x= y= for t 6= −1.
1 + t3 1 + t3
(a) Find an equation in x and y for this curve.
(b) Graph a sketch of the curve by considering which quadrant the curve lies in for different
intervals of t, the following limits, and investigating what happens in quadrant I:

lim x(t) lim y(t) lim x(t) lim y(t)

t→−∞ t→−∞ t→−1− t→−1−

lim x(t) lim y(t) lim x(t) lim y(t)

t→∞ t→∞ t→−1+ t→−1+

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Some Useful Parametric Equations for Basic Shapes

1. (Lines) A quick way to give parametric equations for the line containing the points P =
(a, b) and Q = (c, d) is

x = a + t(c − a) y = b + t(d − b) for t ∈ R.

For t ∈ [0, 1], this describes only the segment P Q.

2. (Circles) Consider the circle with radius r > 0 and center (h, k). The point (x, y) will lie
on this circle iff (x − h, y − k) lies on the circle of radius r centered at the origin. Thus, we
can write x − h = r cos t and y − k = r sin t for some t ∈ R. Hence we obtain the following.

x = h + r cos t y = k + r sin t for t ∈ R

As t increases this traces the circle counterclockwise.

Q: Can you find parametric equations that trace the circle clockwise?

Example 10.1-5: Find a set of parametric equations describing the line passing through the
points P (2, 2) and Q(3, −4).

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Section 10.2 Calculus with Parametric Curves

Derivatives and Tangents

Given a parametric curve x = f (t), y = g(t) where f , and g are differentiable function with
continuous derivatives. Can we find the slope of the tangent line at a point (x0 , y0 ) = (f (t0 ), g(t0 ))
on the curve? By the chain rule,

dy
= provided f 0 (t0 ) 6= 0.
dt

The calculation above is valid because our assumptions (f 0 continuous and f 0 (t0 ) 6= 0) guarantee
that in a sufficiently small neighborhood of t0 there is a differentiable inverse t = f −1 (x), and
thus we can write y = g(f −1 (x)) near our point.

Remarks:

ˆ Observe dy/dx = 0 at all points where dy/dt = 0 and dx/dt 6= 0. We thus have a horizontal
tangent at such points.

ˆ Notice that we will have a vertical tangent whenever dy/dt 6= 0 and dx/dt = 0.

ˆ In cases where dy/dt = dx/dt = 0, dy/dx is indeterminate, and we must investigate with a
limit (possibly using L’Hôpital’s Rule).

Example 10.2-1: Consider curve given by x = sec t, y = tan t, t ∈ (−π/2, π/2).

(a) Find both dy/dx√and d2 y/dx2 in terms of t. (b) Find an equation for the line tangent to the
curve at the point ( 2, 1).

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Example 10.2-2: Consider the parametric curve defined for all real t by x = t2 + 1, y = t3 − 4t.
(a) Find the locations of any horizontal or vertical tangents.
(b) At what point(s) if any does the tangent line have a slope of 2?

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Example 10.2-3: The parametric curve given by x = cos3 t, y = sin3 t for all t ∈ R is called an
astroid. Investigate the behavior of the tangent line at the point where t = π/2.

**The remainder of this section covers areas, length, and surface area for parametric curves.
These will be omitted here. The material on length is the most important item here, but this is
repeated in Section 13.3 where it is applied to study curvature. We thus postpone it until the
multivariable calculus course.**

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Section 10.3 Polar Coordinates

We begin with a “blank” plane (no coordinates) as in high school geometry. Select a point
O called the (or origin) and draw a ray emanating from O which will be called the
. Given a point P , we let r be the length of the line segment OP , and we let
θ be the angle between the polar axis and the segment OP , where θ is positive when measured
counterclockwise. The numbers r, θ are for P . In general, we denote
the point with polar coordinates (r, θ) by P (r, θ) (Note: the text doesn’t use this shorthand).
We also set up Cartesian coordinates so that the positive x-axis is the polar axis and the positive
y-axis is oriented as usual.

Example 10.3-1: Plot the points represented by the following pairs of polar coordinates.
  
3π π
1, − −2, (2, −3π)
2 3

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Important Features of Polar Coordinates

ˆ θ < 0 when measured clockwise from the polar axis.

ˆ (0, θ) represents the pole O for any value of θ. So unlike Cartesian coordinates, polar
coordiantes are not unique. Further observe that P (r, θ) = P (r, θ +2π), since these ordered
pairs represent the same point (However, note that it would be incorrect to write (r, θ) =
(r, θ + 2π), since the pairs are not identical).

ˆ We will allow r < 0 by agreeing that P (r, θ) = P (|r|, θ + π) (see the diagram below).

ˆ In summary, P (r, θ) = P (r, θ + 2nπ) = P (−r, θ + (2n + 1)π), where n is any integer.

The relationship between polar and rectangular coordinates is shown below.

If P is a point other than the origin with polar representation (r, θ) and rectangular representation
(x, y), then:

Observe that we can take θ = π/2 or −π/2 when x = 0.

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Example 10.3-2:

a) Find the Cartesian representation of the point with polar coordinates (4, π/6).

b) Find a polar representation for the point given in rectangular coordinates by (−1, 1).

Graphing in Polar
The graph of a polar equation r = f (θ) or more generally F (r, θ) = 0 is quite naturally the set
of all P (r, θ) satisfying the equation. Sometimes we can get away with converting the defining
equation into Cartesian coordinates to draw a graph.

Example 10.3-3 Find a rectangular equation for the following and identify the figure.

a) r = 2

b) θ = 2π/3

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c) r = 8 sin θ

In many cases, it is easier to graph using polar coordinates. A good strategy is to graph the
equation pretending that θ and r represent rectangular coordinates x and y respectively, and then
“reinterpret” its properties in polar coordinates. For example, if r is decreasing and positive as
θ is increasing, the corresponding polar graph should approach the origin as the angle rotates
counter clockwise. Another good way is to consider special points on the graph, such as points
that are memorized on the unit circle.

Example 10.3-4:

a) Sketch a graph of r = 1 + cos θ.

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b) Sketch a graph of r = sin 3θ.

c) Sketch a graph of r = 1 + 2 sin θ.

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There are various symmetries that can sometimes be helpful when drawing a polar graph.

Symmetry
The graph of r = f (θ) is symmetric with respect to

ˆ the polar axis, if the equation is unchanged when θ is replaced by −θ.

ˆ the line θ = π/2 (the y-axis), if the equation is unchanged when θ is replaced by π − θ.

ˆ the pole (origin), if the equation is unchanged when r is replaced by −r or when θ is re-
placed by θ + π.

Example 10.3-5: What symmetry does r = 8 sin θ have? Recall this is Example 10.3-3c.

Tangents to Polar Curves

First we consider the problem of finding the tangent line to the graph of r = f (θ) at a point P .
This is really just a special case of tangents to parametric equations; indeed we can write

x = r cos θ = f (θ) cos θ and y = r sin θ = f (θ) sin θ.

But then using the product rule and the formula for dy/dx from 10.2 we have

dy
=
dx

provided dx/dθ 6= 0.

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Example 10.3-6: Consider the cardioid defined by r = 1 + cos θ.
(a) Find the slope of the tangent line to the cardioid at the point where θ = π/6.
(b) Locate the points on the cardioid where the tangent lines are horizontal and vertical.

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10.4 Areas and Lengths in Polar Coordinates

Area in Polar Coordinates

Recall that area of a circular sector is given by A = 12 r2 ∆θ, where r is the radius of the circle and
∆θ the central angle (in radians!). For area problems in polar coordinates, the circular sectors
play a similar role to rectangles in Cartesian coordinates. Recall Riemann sums in Cartesian
coordinates use rectangles to approximate the area under a curve.

Consider a region bounded by a polar curve r = f (θ) and the rays θ = α, θ = β, where f is
continuous and positive on [α, β] and 0 ≤ β −α ≤ 2π. We take values θ0 = α < θ1 < · · · < θn = β
dividing [α, β] into n subintervals of equal width ∆θ. Choose a value θk∗ ∈ [θk−1 , θk ] for each k
and construct the circular sector with radius f (θk∗ ) and central angle ∆θ. The sum of the areas
of these approximate (what we intuitively think of as) the area of the region.
n
X 1
f (θk∗ )2 ∆θ
k=1
2

This is a Riemann sum for a particular integral. In view of this we have the following.

Definition: Let f be a continuous nonnegative function on [α, β] where 0 ≤ β − α ≤ 2π. The

area A of the region bounded by r = f (θ), θ = α, and θ = β is
Z β
1
A= f (θ)2 dθ.
α 2

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Example 10.4-1:

a) Find the area of the region enclosed by the cardioid r = 1 + cos θ.

b) Find the area inside the smaller loop of the limaçon r = 1 + 2 sin θ.

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We can also compute the area between two polar curves. More precisely, if f and g are continuous
on [α, β] where 0 ≤ g(θ) ≤ f (θ) and 0 ≤ β − α ≤ 2π then the area A bounded by the graphs
r = g(θ), r = f (θ), θ = α, and θ = β is
Z β
1
A= [f (θ)2 − g(θ)2 ] dθ.
α 2

Example 10.4-2: Find the area inside the r = 2 sin 3θ but outside the unit circle r = 1.

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Example 10.4-3: Find the area inside both r = 2 sin 3θ and r = 1.

** Just as in section 10.2, we omit the discussion of arc length calculations. **

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