Introduction to Area and Arc Length in Polar Coordinates

In the rectangular coordinate system, the definite integral provides a way to calculate the area under a curve. In particular, if we have a function y=f(x) defined from x=a to x=b where f(x)>0 on this interval, the area between the curve and the x-axis is given by A=abf(x)dx. This fact, along with the formula for evaluating this integral, is summarized in the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Similarly, the arc length of this curve is given by L=ab1+(f(x))2dx. In this section, we study analogous formulas for area and arc length in the polar coordinate system.