1.

1 Systems of Coordinates

• There are four main coordinates systems namely

 Rectangular,
 Polar,
 Cylindrical and
 Spherical coordinates

• We will deal here mostly with rectangular system of coordinate

while we will extend in later sections to the relation between the
other coordinates system and rectangular Cartesian coordinates .
 1.2 Rectangular Cartesian Coordinates

• The position (location) of a point in space can

be determined in terms of its perpendicular
distances (known as rectangular cartesian
coordinates or simply rectangular coordinates)
from three mutually perpendicular planes
(known as coordinate planes).

• The lines of intersection of these three

coordinate planes are known as coordinate
axes and their point of intersection the origin.
1.2 Rectangular Cartesian Coordinates
(contd…)
 1.2 Rectangular Cartesian Coordinates
(contd…)
• The three axes called x-axis, y-axis and z-axis are marked
positive on one side of the origin.
• The positive sides of axes OX, OY, OZ form a right handed
system.
• The coordinate planes divide entire space into eight parts
called OCTANTS.
• Thus a point P with coordinates x, y, z is denoted as P(x, y,
z).
• Here x, y, z are respectively the perpendicular distances of
P from the YZ, ZX and XY planes.
• Note that a line perpendicular to a plane is perpendicular
to every line in the plane.
 1.2.1 Second-Degree Plane Curves (2 Dimensions)

Types:

• Ellipse:
• Hyperbola
• Parabola:
• Circle:
 1. Ellipse:
• Ellipse is a locus defined by the parametric
2 2
equations: x y
2
 2 1
a b
x  a cos t (1.1)
y  b sin t (1.2)
• Squaring both sides of (1.1) and (1.2) and add,
we have
x2 y 2
2
 2 1 (1.3)
a b
 1. Ellipse (contd…)
• Equation (1.3) thus describes an ellipse with
centre at origin (0,0).

• An ellipse looks like an elongated circle. It

extends in the x - direction from -a to a and in
the y - direction from -b to b.

• It is illustrated in Fig 1.2 below

 1. Ellipse (contd…) y

a x
-a 0

-b0

-b

Figure 1.12: Ellipse with centre at Origin

 1. Ellipse (contd…)

• For ellipse with centre

y
at (h, k), Fig. 1.3 illustrates this
y

k
-a y y
(h,k)

-b
0 h x

Figure 1.13: Ellipse with centre at (h,k)

 1. Ellipse (contd…)
• The standard equation for ellipse with centre at (h, k) as
analogous to equation (iii) is
x2 y2
 2 1
a 2
b (1.4)
• If we thus make the translation substitution,
x  xh (1.5)
y  yk
• then, the equation becomes
 x  h  y k
2 2

 1
a 2
b 2
(1.6)
 Example 1.1

Question:

2 2
Sketch ellipse x

y
1
4 9
 Example 1.1 (Contd…)
Solution. Figure 1.4 illustrates the sketch.
y

x
-2 2

-3

Figure 1.14: Sketch of an ellipse

 Example 1.2
Question:

Put the equation x 2  3 y 2  4 x  6 y  1

in standard ellipse equation.
 Example 1.2 (Contd…)
• Solution:
Completing the square, we obtain
x 2  4 x  3  y 2  2 y   1

 x  2   3  y  1  4  3  1  6
2 2

     1
2 2
x  2 y  1
6 2
This is the equation of an ellipse with centre
(h, k) = (2, -1) giving the standard form
2 2
x y
 1
6 2
 NOTES on Example 1.2
• There are two interesting situations that may arise
with ellipse equation given in Example 1.2 if the
constant on the RHS takes another value.
 Case 1:
If the constant on the RHS of the equation in
example 1.2 had been -7, we would obtain
i.e  x  2   3  y  1  4  3  7  0
2 2

x 2  3y 2  0
Thus, the equation describes a single point
since a = b = 0 in this case.  x , y   0, 0 
This single point is regarded as a Degenerate Ellipse.
 NOTES on Example 1.2 (Contd…)
 Case 2:
 If the constant had been -8, we would have
obtained
 x  2  3  y  1  4  3  8  1 or x 2  3 y 2  1
2 2

Which has no real solution, the ellipse is then

called Empty.
Thus, every polynomial equation ,
c1 x  c2 y  c3 x  c4 y  d
2 2

, c1, c2 >0
describes an ellipse possibly degenerate or empty.
 2 2
x y y 2 x2
2. Hyperbola: a 2
 2 1
b
or b 2
 2 1
a

• Hyperbola is a locus defined by the parametric

equations
(1.7)t
x  a cosh
y  b sinh t
(1.8)

• Squaring both sides

2 of 2(1.7) and (1.8) and add, we have
x y
2
 2 1
a b
(1.9)
• Equation (1.9) thus describes an hyperbola with centre
at origin (0,0).
 2. Hyperbola: (Contd…)
• The hyperbola never crosses the axis
corresponding to the variable having the
negative sign.
• It is illustrated in Fig. 1.15 below.
y y

b
b

-a a x
-a a x
-b

-b
 2. Hyperbola: (Contd…)
b
• The dashed diagonal lines y    are
 x the
a
asymptotes of the hyperbola.
• Hyperbolic functions are usually defined by
sinhx and coshx as illustrated in Fig. 1.16.
y 1
coshx coshx

tanhx
hx
sin

0 x

-1
coshx
 2. Hyperbola: (Contd…)
 x2 y 2
Example 1.3:Sketch the hyperbola  1
4 9

Solution. Fig. 1.17 illustrates the sketch.

 2. Hyperbola: (Contd…)
x2 y 2
Example 1.4: Sketch the hyperbola  1
4 9
Solution

Figure 1.18: The Sketch of hyperbola in Example 1.4

 2. Hyperbola: (Contd…)
In general every polynomial equation ,
c1 x  c2 y  c3 x  c4 y  d, c1, c2 < 0
2 2

describes a hyperbola.

Note that the coefficients of x2 and y2 have opposite

signs.
For 2 the2 case where
2 the
2 final equation reduces to
x y x y
2
 2  0 or   2  0
a b a b
b
y    x
Asymptote a
the equation will represent 2 lines that can be
considered DEGENERATE HYPERBOLA.
3. Parabola: y  ax or x  ay 2 2

• The parabola is along the axis corresponding

to the variable not being squared. Fig. 1.9
illustrates this
y y

y = ax2, a > 0

x x

x = ay2, a < 0

Figure 1.19: Parabolas with centre at origin (0,0)

 3. Parabola: (Contd…)
• In general, the equations
c1 x 2  c2 x  c3 y  d (1.10)
and c1 y 2  c2 x  c3 y  d (1.11)
describe parabolas.
 If c3 in the first equation and c2 in the second
equation is not equal to zero, these equations
can then be reduced to the form
x 2  ay and  ax
y 2
 3. Parabola: (Contd…)
 If c3 in the 1st equation is zero and c2 in the 2nd
equation is zero, then equation reduced to
c1 x  c2 x  d
2
(1.14)
c1 y  c3 x  d
2
(1.15)

And each describes two parabola lines that

can be considered DEGENERATE PARABOLAS.
 3. Parabola: (Contd…)
Example 1.4
Sketch the parabolas (i) y  2 xand
2
x  2 y2

Solution. The required sketches are as shown in

Fig. 1.20 below
 3. Parabola: (Contd…)
• In summary, every equation of the form

c1 x 2  c2 y 2  c3 x  c4 y  d (1.16)

With at least one of c1 or c2 non-zero describe

a (possibly degenerate or empty) Ellipse,
Hyperbola or Parabola.
 1.2.2. Three-Dimensional Space Systems

• Here we consider the 3-Dimensional space and the

conventions that we’ll be using.
• We will also take a brief look at how the different
coordinate systems can change the graph of an equation.
• Let’s first get some basic notation out of the way. The 3-
D coordinate system is often denoted by . 3
• Likewise the 2-D space system is often denoted by and
the 1-D space system is denoted by . 
• Also, as you might have guessed then a general n
dimensional Space system is often denoted by .  n