VECTOR AND

COORDINATE SYSTEM

www.company.com

SKALAR
PRODUCT
The scalar product of two vectors can be constructed by taking
thecomponent of one vector in the direction of the other and
multiplying it times the magnitude of the other vector. This can
be expressed in the form:

www.company.com

If the vectors are expressed in terms of unit

vectors i, j, and k along the x, y, and z
directions, the scalar product can also be
expressed in the form:

www.company.com

The vectors A and B cannot be unambiguously calculated

from the scalar product and the angle. If the angle is
changed, then B will be placed along the x-axis and A in the
xy plane.

www.company.com

Geometrically, thescalar productis useful for

finding the direction between arbitrary vectors in
space. Since the two expressions for the product:

Involve the components of the two vectors and

since the magnitudes A and B can be calculated
from the components using:

www.company.com

THE DEL
OPERATOR
The collection ofpartial derivativeoperators

www.company.com

Vector
Product
The collection ofpartial derivativeoperators

the direction is given by theright-hand rule. If the vectors are

expressed in terms of unit vectors i, j, and k in the x, y, and z
directions, can be expressed in form:

www.company.com

Thevector productis compactly stated in the form

of adeterminantwhich for the 3x3 case has a
convenientevaluation procedure

Once the scheme for determinant evaluation is familiar, this is a convenient

way to reconstruct the expanded form:

www.company.com

Vector Product Applications

www.company.com

ght Hand Rule, Vector Product

www.company.com

The
Gradient

In rectangular coordinates the gradient of function f(x,y,

www.company.com

Compared to thegradientin rectangular coordina

Incylindrical polarcoordinates:

and inspherical polarcoordinates:

www.company.com

THE DIVERGENCE
The divergence of a vector field

inrectangular coordinatesis defined as thescalar productof

thedel operatorand the function

www.company.com

Compared to thedivergence in rectangular coordinates:

Incylindrical polarcoordinates:

and inspherical polarcoordinates:

www.company.com

The
Curl

The curl of a vector function is thevector productof thedel

operatorwith a vector function:

where i,j,k areunit vectorsin the x, y, z directions. It can

also be expressed indeterminantform

www.company.com

Thecurl incylindrical polar coordinates,

expressed indeterminantform is

Thecurlinspherical polar coordinates,

expressed indeterminantform is

www.company.com

The LaPlacian
Thedivergenceof thegradientof a scalar function
is called the Laplacian. In rectangular coordinates:

www.company.com

Compared to theLaPlacianin rectangular

coordinates:

Incylindrical polarcoordinates:

and inspherical
polarcoordinates

www.company.com

COORDINATE
SYSTEM

www.company.com

COORDINATE
SYSTEM

www.company.com

CARTESIAN COORDINATE
SYSTEM
In theplane, twoperpendicularlines are
chosen and the coordinates of a point are
taken to be the signed distances to the lines.

www.company.com

In three dimensions, three perpendicular

planes are chosen and the three coordinates
of a point are the signed distances to each of
the planes. This can be generalized to
createn coordinates for any point inndimensionalEuclidean space.

www.company.com

The most commoncoordinate systemfor

representingpositionsin space is one based on three
perpendicular spatial axes generally designated x, y,
and z
Any point P may be
represented by three signed
numbers, usually written (x,
y, z) where the coordinate is
the perpendicular distance
from the plane formed by
the other
two axes.
Often
positions
are specified by a
position vector r which can be
expressed in terms of the
coordinate values and
associatedunit vectors.

www.company.com

Although the entire coordinate

system can be rotated, the
relationship between the axes is
fixed in what is called a righthanded coordinate system.
The distance between any two
points in rectangular coordinates
can be found from thedistance
relationship

www.company.com

DISTANCE
RELATIONSHIP

he distance between two points

is given by

position parameters

www.company.com

POLAR COORDINATE
SYSTEM
A point is chosen as thepoleand
a ray from this point is taken as
thepolar axis. For a given angle ,
there is a single line through the
pole whose angle with the polar
axis is (measured
counterclockwise from the axis to
the line).

www.company.com

Then there is a unique point on

this line whose signed distance
from the origin isrfor given
numberr. For a given pair of
coordinates (r,) there is a single
point, but any point is
represented by many pairs of
coordinates. For example (r,),
(r,+2) and (r,+) are all
polar coordinates for the same
point. The pole is represented by
(0, ) for any value of .
www.company.com

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

www.company.com

Spherical coordinate
systems

There are two common methods for extending the polar

coordinate system to three dimensions. In thecylindrical
coordinate system, az-coordinate with the same meaning
as in Cartesian coordinates is added to therand polar
coordinates. Spherical coordinates take this a step further
by converting the pair of cylindrical coordinates (r,z) to
polar coordinates (,) giving a triple (,,)

www.company.com

www.company.com

Coordinate curves and

surfaces

In the Cartesian coordinate system the

coordinate curves are, in fact, lines.

www.company.com

Coordinate surfaces in the Spherical coordinate system

coordinate curves in polar coordinates obtained by

holdingr constant are the circles with center at the origin.
www.company.com