How Do You Calculate the X-Coordinate in Circular Motion?

[blimkie]

Im having a bit of trouble on the last question of my assignment...

The circular motion of a particle in the x-y plane is given by the equations: r(t) = 7.23 m, θ(t) = (6.33 rad/s)t, where r is the distance from the origin and θ is the polar angle measured counterclockwise from the positive x-axis. Calculate the x-coordinate of the particle at time t = 2.50 s.

ayone have any hints, care to point me in the right direction?

 

[berkeman]

Homework questions should be posted in the homework forums, not in the general forums.

Having said that, are you familiar with converting between rectangular (x,y) coordinates and polar (r,theta) coordinates? You have the equation of motion of the particle in polar coordinates, so calculate the position (r,theta) at t=2.5s, and convert to polar coordinates to provide the answer requested.

 

[blimkie]

No I am not familiar with converting between rectangular coordinates and polar coordinates this is all new to me.

Sorry about posting in the wrong forum.

 

[berkeman]

Here's a page at wikipedia.org that should help. It starts off with rectangular, and there's a link to polar mid-way down the page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinate_systems