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Once the radius is fixed, the three coordinates (r, θ, φ), known as a 3-tuple, provide a coordinate system on a sphere, typically called the spherical polar coordinates. The plane passing through the origin and perpendicular to the polar axis (where the polar angle is a right angle ) is called the reference plane (sometimes fundamental plane ).
Let (x, y, z) be the standard Cartesian coordinates, and (ρ, θ, φ) the spherical coordinates, with θ the angle measured away from the +Z axis (as , see conventions in spherical coordinates). As φ has a range of 360° the same considerations as in polar (2 dimensional) coordinates apply whenever an arctangent of it is taken. θ has a range ...
Vectors are defined in cylindrical coordinates by (ρ, φ, z), where ρ is the length of the vector projected onto the xy-plane, φ is the angle between the projection of the vector onto the xy-plane (i.e. ρ) and the positive x-axis (0 ≤ φ < 2π), z is the regular z-coordinate. (ρ, φ, z) is given in Cartesian coordinates by:
The resulting curve then consists of points of the form (r(φ), φ) and can be regarded as the graph of the polar function r. Note that, in contrast to Cartesian coordinates, the independent variable φ is the second entry in the ordered pair. Different forms of symmetry can be deduced from the equation of a polar function r:
If a standard right-handed Cartesian coordinate system is used, with the x-axis to the right and the y-axis up, the rotation R(θ) is counterclockwise. If a left-handed Cartesian coordinate system is used, with x directed to the right but y directed down, R(θ) is clockwise.
Table with the del operator in cartesian, cylindrical and spherical coordinates Operation Cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) Cylindrical coordinates (ρ, φ, z) Spherical coordinates (r, θ, φ), where θ is the polar angle and φ is the azimuthal angle α; Vector field A
The three surfaces intersect at the point P with those coordinates (shown as a black sphere); the Cartesian coordinates of P are roughly (1.0, −1.732, 1.0). Cylindrical coordinate surfaces. The three orthogonal components, ρ (green), φ (red), and z (blue), each increasing at a constant rate. The point is at the intersection between the ...
Some of these formulas are expressed in terms of the Cartesian expansion of the spherical harmonics into polynomials in x, y, z, and r. For purposes of this table, it is useful to express the usual spherical to Cartesian transformations that relate these Cartesian components to θ {\displaystyle \theta } and φ {\displaystyle \varphi } as