Cartesian to Polar Converter

About this calculator

This converter takes a point given in Cartesian coordinates (x, y) and expresses it in polar form (r, θ). The radius is r = √(x² + y²) — the straight-line distance from the origin — and the angle is θ = atan2(y, x), which correctly places the angle in the right quadrant unlike a plain arctangent. Results are shown in both degrees and radians since engineering and physics contexts commonly use one or the other.

Polar form is the natural language of rotation and periodic motion, so electrical engineers use it to express AC impedance and phasors, robotics and navigation engineers use it for range-and-bearing sensor data, and students and programmers rely on it when working with complex numbers, trigonometric graphing, or 2D game and graphics math where positions are more naturally described by distance and direction than by grid coordinates.