https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Canfan 2026-04-06T06:57:05Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1230:_Polar/Cartesian&diff=42158 2013-06-27T00:34:31Z

<p>Canfan: Clearer explanation of the Cartesian view; improved grammar for the title text</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1230<br /> | date = June 26, 2013<br /> | title = Polar/Cartesian<br /> | image = polar_cartesian.png<br /> | titletext = Protip: Any two-axis graph can be re-labeled 'coordinates of the ants crawling across my screen as a function of time'.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete}}<br /> This comic plays upon the difference between reading a {{w|Polar coordinate system|polar coordinate plot}} and the more common {{w|Cartesian coordinate system|cartesian coordinate plot}}, with its x and y axes. On a polar coordinate plot the distance from the zero point is the ''radius'' as the first value and the ''angle'' is the second, measured from one fixed axis. This fixed 0° axis should be the one which is labeled, the other ones do need a label because it would be show the same radius.<br /> <br /> A ''function of time'' is just the line. A single measurement would only be one point, but we see a line, following each point time by time.<br /> <br /> At time zero when you first see it, the graph reads 50% as a polar or Cartesian graph. If you start to see it as Polar, you see the value of the radius increasing from 50% to 100% while the angle is turning by 90 degrees. If you start to see it as Cartesian, you see the line drop from 50% to 0%. The joke is that, either way, you are right. <br /> <br /> The title text is a joke that if you have any two-axis (two-dimensional) graph, you can just re-label it and if you really have ants on your screen, they will act as data points. Ants do often follow a path when they've found a target.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :Certainty that this is a clockwise polar plot, not a cartesian one, as a function of time:<br /> :[The graph shows a red curve starting at 50% on the Y-axis and arcing down to intersect 0% at the 10th unit of the X-axis.]<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> [[Category:Math]]<br /> [[Category:Charts]]<br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div>

Canfan