Recall that \(\displaystyle r=\sqrt{x^2+y^2}\) and \(\displaystyle r\cos\theta = x\)
Okay so I converted and solved until I got: 0= x2 + y2 - 4x -16
I did a square root and now I have 0= -x + y - 4
I have no idea how to turn this into rectangular form. Any ideas?
That is not correct. What you have above is the equation of a circle. Your original function of r and theta is a Cardioid (Wikipedia)
I'm also uncertain as how you got to the second equation from the first. You are aware that \(\displaystyle \sqrt{a+b}\neq \sqrt{a}+\sqrt{b}\) right?
Please post your substitutions and your step-by-step simplification.
I multiplied both sides by r. Then converted r2 to x2 + y2 so that I had: x2 + y2 = 4 (sqrt{x2 + y2 }) + 4x