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Re: Adding Vectors -- Newbie help please

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg51992] Re: Adding Vectors -- Newbie help please
  • From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
  • Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 02:08:34 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <cmfc9b$7k3$1@smc.vnet.net>
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

motz art wrote:
> Mathematica v5: How can I input vectors in polar form and
> rectangular form?  
> 
> Example:
> 
> a:= (r1, theta1) + (r2, theta2)  Polar form.
> 
> b:= (re1 , j* im1) + (re2, j*im2) Rectangular form
> 
> I know this should be pretty basic, but I haven't  found examples
> of this kind of input.
> 
> I would guess it would be something like: 
> 
>           Polar[magnitude, phase]
>           Rectangular[Real, Imaginary]
> 
> but, apparently not.  (This is for  electronics engineering.)
> 
> Thanks for any help.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
You can easily write a function to convert from polar to coordinate form:

FromPolar[r_, theta_] := {r Cos[theta], r Sin[theta]}

Note that this assumes your angles are measured in radians. Once all 
your vectors are in coordinate form you can add/subtract then directly:

{1,2}+(3,4}

produces

{4,6}

Regards,

David Bailey


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