Question

Find the slope of the tangent line to the given polar curve at the point specified by the value of theta.

r = 7 + 4 cos(theta), theta = pi/3

Answer 1

Find the slope of the tangent line to the given polar curve at the point specified by the value of

θ

.

r

=

7

+

4

cos

(

θ

)

,

θ

=

π

3

Slope:

Slope of the polar function which is a sum of cosine function and a constant is what we have to find in this question. We will first find the derivative of the function and then apply the formula:

d

y

d

x

=

r

′

sin

θ

+

r

cos

θ

r

′

sin

θ

−

r

sin

θ