<p>How important is knowledge of polar coordinates in engineering? It seems like it is not covered in the calculus class at my college.</p>
<p>Ummm…</p>
<p>I guess it depends on your major as to how useful that topic would be. Generally speaking, not talking about polar coordinates is a fairly troubling oversight.</p>
<p>If you’re still in Calculus I, you’re probably alright, as it’s usually covered in the Cal II and Cal III courses (sometimes linear algebra also).</p>
<p>Pretty important, you need them to evaluate some double integrals.</p>
<p>For me and most people I know it was covered in high school. Its pretty important in solving any type of problem involving symmetry. If you need to solve things involving cylinders, it is easier in polar coordinates.</p>
<p>It is important for some applications, such as double integrals and a few vector operations.</p>
<p>However these days you can easily look it up on the internet to find examples/summary of how to apply it.</p>