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Spherical Coordinates

The document defines spherical coordinate systems and provides related formulae. It defines the radial, azimuthal and polar coordinates as r, ψ and θ. It gives the cartesian coordinate conversions and defines the orthonormal spherical unit vectors er, eψ and eθ in terms of cartesian unit vectors. It notes that the spherical unit vectors are functions of the coordinates and time derivatives if the coordinates are functions of time.

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Lynn Kim
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47 views

Spherical Coordinates

The document defines spherical coordinate systems and provides related formulae. It defines the radial, azimuthal and polar coordinates as r, ψ and θ. It gives the cartesian coordinate conversions and defines the orthonormal spherical unit vectors er, eψ and eθ in terms of cartesian unit vectors. It notes that the spherical unit vectors are functions of the coordinates and time derivatives if the coordinates are functions of time.

Uploaded by

Lynn Kim
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Useful formulae related to spherical coordinate systems

Gabriela Gonzalez September 12, 2006


We use r for the radial coordinate (r > 0), for the azimuthal angle with the z-axis (0 ) and for the polar angle in the x-y axis (0 < 2). The formulae for cartesian coordinates in terms of spherical coordinates are: x = r sin cos y = r sin sin z = r cos The spherical unit vectors in terms of cartesian unit vectors are: er = sin cos + sin sin + cos k i j e = cos cos + cos sin sin k i j e = sin + cos i j These vectors are orthonormal: ei ej = ij and cyclical: ei ej = functions of coordinates:
r er er er

ijk ek ,

but they are

=0 = e = sin e

r e e e

=0 = r e = cos e

r e e e

=0 =0 = sin r cos e e

and thus, they are also functions of time if the coordinates are functions of time: d e er = + sin e dt d e e = r + cos e dt d e = (sin r + cos ) e e dt

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