P4 Chapter 4 :: Parametric

Equations
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Chapter Overview
This chapter is very similar to the trigonometry chapters in Year 1. The only
difference is that new trig functions: and , are introduced.

1:: Converting from parametric to 2:: Sketching parametric curves.

Cartesian form.
Sketch the curve with parametric
If and , find a Cartesian equations equations and .
connecting and .

3:: Finding points of intersection. 4:: Modelling

Curve has the parametric A plane’s position at time seconds after
equations and . The curve has the take-off can be modelled with the
Cartesian equation . The two parametric equations:
curves intersect at . Find the m, m,
coordinates of . …

Teacher Note: There is no change in this chapter

relative to the old pre-2017 syllabus.
What are they and what is the point?
2 2
𝑥 − 𝑦 =5
Typically, with two variables and , we can
relate the two by a single equation
involving just and .
This is known as a Cartesian equation.

The line shows all points which satisfy the

Cartesian equation.

𝑥=sin ( 𝑡 ) However, in Mechanics for example, we might want

each of the and values to be some function of time , as
per this example.

This would allow us to express the position of a particle

at time as the vector:

These are known as parametric equations, because

each of and are defined in terms of some other
variable, known as the parameter (in this case ).
Converting parametric to Cartesian
How could we convert these parametric equations into a single Cartesian one?
2
𝑥 =2 𝑡 , 𝑦 =𝑡 , − 3 < 𝑡 <3
Use substitution to eliminate the parameter.

What is the domain of the function?

! If and can be written as , then the domain of is the range of ...

If then . ? Use for each of the

bounds.

! and the range of is the range of .

If then . ? This one is harder. and .

However, the minimum value is clearly .
Further Example
[Textbook] A curve has the parameter equations

a) Find a Cartesian equation of the curve of the form , , where is a constant to be

found.
b) Write down the range of .

A common strategy for

When ,
domain/range questions is to
As increases, increases, therefore . consider what happens are

?a the boundary value (in this

case -2), then since , consider
what happens as increases.
b) When
As increases, decreases, therefore

?b
Test Your Understanding
Edexcel P4 Jan 2008 Q7

Edexcel P4 Jan 2011

𝑥
𝑡 =𝑒
?
Exercise 3A
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 2/AS
Pages
…when you have trig identities
It’s often helpful to use or to turn parametric equations into a single Cartesian
one.

[Textbook] A curve has the parametric [Textbook] A curve is defined by the parametric
sequences , , . equations
a) Find a Cartesian equation for the curve.
b) Hence sketch the curve. a) Find a Cartesian equation of the curve in
the form , stating the value of the constant .
b) Write down the range of .
2 2
sin 𝑡 + cos 𝑡 ≡1
a
𝑦 If we have , we need to
turn in into so that we can
When , replace it with . It’s quite
common to have to
. interchange between and

? 𝑥
When
? in this way. You may find it
helpful to write out the
identity first.
varies between -1 and 1 when , therefore range is .

(2 , −3)
1
b
?
 Test Your Understanding
C4 June 2013 which double angle formula
would be best here?

[Textbook] A curve has parametric equations

a) Find the equation of the curve in the form and state the domain of for which the curve is
defined.
b) Hence, sketch the curve.

𝑦
As varies between 0 and , varies over all real
numbers (sketch to see this). Therefore the
domain of is . ?a 3
?b
1 3 𝑥
Exercise 8B
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 2/AS
Pages 204-206

Further Exam Practice

𝑥=2 √ 3sin𝑡cos𝑡
C4 June 2012 Q6
?
Sketching Parametric Curves
We saw that one strategy for sketching parametric curves is to convert into a
Cartesian equation, and hope this is a form we recognise (e.g. quadratic or
equation of circle) to appropriately sketch.
However, some parametric equations can’t easily be turned into Cartesian form:

These parametric equations in Cartesian form

would be this would obviously be incredibly hard
to sketch!

Instead we can try different values of and determine the point for
each value to get a sequence of points…
Sketching Parametric Curves

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
𝑦

( − 1.67,1.57 )
( 0 ,1.57 )
( 0.56,0.56 )
( −3.14 ,0 ) ( 0 ,0 ) 𝑥

(−2.78,−2.78)
Test Your Understanding
[Textbook] Draw the curve given by the parametric equations
, for .

𝑦
25
20 ?
15
10
5
𝑥
-2 2 4 6 8 10
Exercise 8C
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 2/AS
Pages 207-208

(This exercise could probably be skipped for

classes in a rush)
Points of Intersection
We can find where a parametric curve crosses a particular axis or where curves
cross each other. 𝑦
The key is to first find the value of the parameter .

[Textbook] The diagram shows a curve with 𝐶

parametric equations , , , where is a non-zero
constant. Given that passes through the point ,
a) find the value of . −4 𝑥
𝑂
b) find the coordinates of the points and where the
curve crosses the -axis. 𝐴
𝐵
a b On the -axis, :
From equation (2), because ,
Substituting into (1): At
At
? ?
Points of Intersection
[Textbook] A curve is given parametrically by the equations . The line meets the
curve at . Find the coordinates of .

𝑥+ 𝑦+4=0
Whenever you want to solve a
Cartesian equation and pair of
parametric equations simultaneously,
substitute the parametric equations
into the Cartesian one.

[Textbook] The diagram shows a curve with parametric equations

a) Find the point where the curve intersects the line .

b) Find the coordinates of the points and where the curve cuts the -axis.

a b When ,

Since ,
𝑦
(But reject as outside domain of )
If ,
? ?
𝐵
𝐴
𝑂 𝑥
Test Your Understanding
C4 Jan 2013

If ,

Then:
a?

If ,

b?
Exercise 8D
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 2/AS
Pages 211-213
Modelling
As we saw at the start of this chapter, parametric equations are frequently used in
mechanics, particularly where the position (the Cartesian variables) depends on time
(the parameter).

[Textbook] A plane’s position at time seconds after take-off can be modelled with the following
parametric equations:

where is the speed of the plane, is the angle of elevation of its path, is the horizontal distance travelled
and is the vertical distance travelled, relative to a fixed origin.
When the plane has travelled 600m horizontally, it has climbed 120m.
a. find the angle of elevation, .

M
DF
Given that the plane’s speed is 50 m s-1,
b. find the parametric equations for the plane’s motion.
c. find the vertical height of the plane after 10 seconds.
d. show that the plane’s motion is a straight line.
𝜃
e. explain why the domain of , , is not realistic.

a ? e Plane would continue to

b At , climb forever! ?
and
which is a linear equation.
?
c ?
d
?
Further Example
[Textbook] The motion of a figure skater relative to a fixed
origin, , at time minutes is modelled using the parametric
equations

where and are measured in metres.

a) Find the coordinates of the figure skater at the beginning of
his motion.
b) Find the coordinates of the point where the figure skater
intersects his own path.
c) Find the coordinates of the points where the path of the
figure skater crosses the -axis.
d) Determine how long it takes the figure skater to complete
one complete figure-of-eight motion.

a At c When :

? Substitute these -values into .

From the graph, the intersection is when :
b
(Any of these values will do) ?
The period of is , so the period of is (as graph stretched by factor
of ). Similarly period of is . Both parametric equations must complete
full periods (in this case so that skater returns to original position), so

? period is min = 38 seconds.

d
?
Exercise 8E
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 2/AS
Pages 218-220
 Just For Fun…
in ( sin ( 𝑥 ) +cos ( 𝑦 ) ) =cos ( sin ( 𝑥𝑦 ) +cos ( 𝑥 ) )

(Yes, I realise this is a Cartesian

equation, not parametric ones – but
it looked pretty!)