polar coordinate
noun
: either of two numbers that locate a point in a plane by its distance from a fixed point on a line and the angle this line makes with a fixed line
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The color of each point corresponds to its angle in polar coordinates.
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Jordana Cepelewicz, Quanta Magazine, 21 Sep. 2023
Leonardo applied a mapping technique developed by Florentine humanist Leon Battista Alberti, who proposed that a town can be mapped using polar coordinates.
—National Geographic, 21 May 2020
Critical mathematical applications such as Fourier transforms, Riemann zeta functions, Gaussian distributions, roots of unity, integrating over polar coordinates and pretty much anything involving trigonometry employs pi.
—Randyn Charles Bartholomew, Scientific American, 25 June 2014
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Jordana Cepelewicz, Quanta Magazine, 21 Sep. 2023
Leonardo applied a mapping technique developed by Florentine humanist Leon Battista Alberti, who proposed that a town can be mapped using polar coordinates.
—National Geographic, 21 May 2020
Critical mathematical applications such as Fourier transforms, Riemann zeta functions, Gaussian distributions, roots of unity, integrating over polar coordinates and pretty much anything involving trigonometry employs pi.
—Randyn Charles Bartholomew, Scientific American, 25 June 2014
Cite this Entry
“Polar coordinate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polar%20coordinate. Accessed 13 Jul. 2025.
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