Drawing polar plots

If the data is already represented using polar coordinates, we can as well display it using polar figures. Even if the data is not in polar coordinates, we should consider converting it to polar form and draw on polar plots.

To answer whether we want to do this, we need to understand what the data represents and what we are hoping to display to the end user. Imagining what the user will read and decode from our figures leads us usually to the best of visualizations.

Polar plots are commonly used to display information that is radial in nature. For example, in sun path diagrams—we see the sky in radial projection, and the radiation maps of antennas radiate differently at different angles. You can learn more about this at: http://www.astronwireless.com/topic-archives-antenna-radiation-patterns.asp.

In this recipe, we will learn how to change the coordinate system used in the plot and to use the polar coordinate system instead.

Getting ready

To display data in polar coordinates...