- #1
petertheta
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I have a worksheet that due to missing the lecture I'm now stuck on.
You are given a cartesian vector and told find the polar unit vecors and hence express the original vector as a linear combination of the polar unit vectors just found. I've searched resources online but feel that there is conflicting information. It would be good if you could help clarify the methodology to do this transformation. I generally understand the nature of the unit vector.
So here's the question:
[tex]\vec{v} = 3\hat{x} + 4\hat{y}[/tex]
Where the x-hat etc are the cartesian unit vectors.
But what I have found through reading through online notes etc gives the polar unit vectors as:
[tex]\hat{r} = \cos{\theta}\hat{x}+\sin{\theta}\hat{y}[/tex]
[tex] \hat{\theta} = -\sin{\theta}\hat{x} + \cos{\theta}\hat{y}[/tex]
The thing is though these are still containing the cartesian unit vectors so I can't really see how a transformation has taken place.
Can you help?
Thanks - Pete
You are given a cartesian vector and told find the polar unit vecors and hence express the original vector as a linear combination of the polar unit vectors just found. I've searched resources online but feel that there is conflicting information. It would be good if you could help clarify the methodology to do this transformation. I generally understand the nature of the unit vector.
So here's the question:
[tex]\vec{v} = 3\hat{x} + 4\hat{y}[/tex]
Where the x-hat etc are the cartesian unit vectors.
But what I have found through reading through online notes etc gives the polar unit vectors as:
[tex]\hat{r} = \cos{\theta}\hat{x}+\sin{\theta}\hat{y}[/tex]
[tex] \hat{\theta} = -\sin{\theta}\hat{x} + \cos{\theta}\hat{y}[/tex]
The thing is though these are still containing the cartesian unit vectors so I can't really see how a transformation has taken place.
Can you help?
Thanks - Pete