Get straight answers on a curved grid. An interactive has learners apply the Law of Cosines to find the distance between two points on the polar coordinate plane. The pupils use the radii lengths and the angle between the two radii to find the length of the third side of a triangle.

Concepts

polar coordinates, distance, polar form, law of cosines

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Additional Tags

math

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Instructional Ideas

• Have the class members investigate whether the subtraction order of the angles will affect the solution

Classroom Considerations

• The class should know how to plot points in polar form
• Access requires signing up for a free CK-12 account

Pros

• Provides the opportunity to see the correct answer if users select the wrong one 
• Includes hints and feedback to some of the problems

Cons

• The second question does not take into consideration that cosine is an even function

Common Core

HSG-SRT.D.11 MP4