Polar Bear vs. Bipolar Bear. Can you get this joke? If you’re a math agnostic like me you also might have to ask your friend what this joke means. Then both of you can have a good laugh. So read on to hear my explanation… and don’t worry this bipolar has nothing to do with the dreaded mental disorder.
In mathematics, the polar coordinate system is a two-dimensional coordinate system in which each point on a plane is determined by a distance from a fixed point and an angle from a fixed direction. Sounds not so bad, hmm?
Incidentally, and because I do much better in history than in math, the concepts of angle and radius were already used by the ancient Greeks such as Hipparchus and Archimedes. These are names I can remember.
Extending our joke to our bipolar bear we now learn what is a bipolar coordinate system. It is based on Apollonian circles, that is circles that intersect at right angles. The curves of constant ? and of ? are circles that intersect at right angles. The coordinates have two foci F1 and F2. And that’s the essence of it.
Now look at the picture below for a visual description of (bi)polar coordinate system and have one more good laugh when looking at our (bi)polar bears.
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