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2.6 Cylindrical Polar Coordinate System

This document describes the cylindrical polar coordinate system. It shows that in this system, a point P defined by Cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) can equivalently be defined by cylindrical polar coordinates (φ, ρ, z), where ρ is the distance from the z-axis and φ is the azimuthal angle. It defines the unit vectors eρ, eφ, and ez that point in the directions of increasing ρ, φ, and z. It expresses the position vector r and its partial derivatives in terms of these unit vectors, and gives the scale factors hρ, hφ, and hz for expressing gradients, divergences and Laplacians in cylindrical polar coordinates.

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John Wanyoike Makau
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65 views2 pages

2.6 Cylindrical Polar Coordinate System

This document describes the cylindrical polar coordinate system. It shows that in this system, a point P defined by Cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) can equivalently be defined by cylindrical polar coordinates (φ, ρ, z), where ρ is the distance from the z-axis and φ is the azimuthal angle. It defines the unit vectors eρ, eφ, and ez that point in the directions of increasing ρ, φ, and z. It expresses the position vector r and its partial derivatives in terms of these unit vectors, and gives the scale factors hρ, hφ, and hz for expressing gradients, divergences and Laplacians in cylindrical polar coordinates.

Uploaded by

John Wanyoike Makau
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2.

Cylindrical Polar Coordinate System

It is usually convenient to express the gradient , divergence A , curl A , and


Laplacian 2 , of scalar and vector fields , and A , respectively, in terms of coordinate
systems other than the Cartesian coordinate system. One such coordinate system is the
cylindrical polar coordinate system.
z
Px, y, z

ez

e
e

z
k
j

As shown in the figure above, the position of a point P having Cartesian coordinates x , y , z
may be expressed in terms of cylindrical polar coordinates , , z where
x cos

(31.a)

y sin

(31.b)

zz

(31.c)

The position vector of P may therefore be written as


r i cos j sin kz

(32)

Taking the partial derivative of r with respect to , , and z respectively we have


r
e i cos j sin

(33a)

r
e i sin j cos

(33b)

r
e z k
z

(33c)

The vectors e , e and e z point in the direction of increasing , , and z respectively. Their
magnitudes are
e e e

cos sin
2

e e e 2 sin 2 cos2

e z k 1

(34a)

(34b)

(34c)

Thus e and e z are unit vectors. Since e too is a unit vector, we may write the unit vectors
e , e , ez of the cylindrical polar coordinate system as
e

r
i cos j sin

(35a)

1 r
i sin j cos

(35b)

ez

r
k
z

(35c)

The unit vectors in equations (35) may also be written as


e

1 r
h

(36a)

1 r
h

(36b)

ez

1 r
hz z

(36c)

where h 1, h , hz 1 are known as the scale factors for the cylindrical polar coordinate
system.

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