Any quantity that has two components, can be represented in at least two different ways:
- Rectangular Coordinates, where the magnitude of the components, can be represented by a point, with respect to a pair of orthogonal coordinate axes.
- Polar Coordinates, where the two components are the distance from a reference point, called the origin, and the angle between the line from the point to the origin, and a reference axis.
- Compute the magnitude as:
\(M\;=\;\sqrt{(x-0)^2+(y-0)^2}\)
- Compute the angle as:
\(\angle\;=\;tan^{-1} \left (\frac{y}{x} \right )\)
- Compute the x coordinate as:
\(x\;=\;M\cdot cos(\theta)\)
- Compute the y coordinate as:
\(y\;=\;M\cdot sin(\theta)[\)