9.

4 Relations between Cartesian, Cylindrical, and Spherical Coordinates

Consider a cartesian, a cylindrical, and a spherical coordinate system, related as shown in Figure
1.

Figure 1: Standard relations between cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems.
The origin is the same for all three. The positive z-axes of the cartesian and cylindrical systems
coincide with the positive polar axis of the spherical system. The initial rays of the cylindrical
and spherical systems coincide with the positive x-axis of the cartesian system, and the rays
=90 coincide with the positive y-axis.
Then the cartesian coordinates (x,y,z), the cylindrical coordinates (r, ,z), and the spherical
coordinates ( , , ) of a point are related as follows:

Spherical Polar Coordinates

Cylindrical Polar Coordinates

With the axis of the circular cylinder taken as the z-axis, the
perpendicular distance from the cylinder axis is designated by r and the
azimuthal angle taken to be .