TENSOR TRANSFORMATIONS

for
CURVILINEAR COORDINATES

General convention: Unprimed to primed satisfies ej = aij ei'.

1. Cartesian to Curvilinear
xj
Note that ej = xj = h q qi , using the curvilinear form of the gradient.
i

xj
Therefore, ej = aij qi', where aij = h q .
i

2. Curvilinear to Cartesian
Observe qj =

qj
1 qj
=
e
|qj|
|qj| xi i

Therefore we see that

1 qj xi
q
from part 1 above
|qj| xi hkqk k
1 qj
=
q
by the Chain Rule
|qj| hkqk k
1 1
qj
=
q
because
j
qk = jk
|qj| hj
=

1
hj qj
= hj . So, qj = x ei .
|qj|
i

hj qj
I.e. qj = bij ei', where bij = x .
i

3. Curvilinear to Curvilinear '

hj qj
hj qj xk
hj qj
qj = x ek = x h ' q ' qi' = h ' q ' qi' .
k
k
i
i
i
i
hj qj
Thus, qj = cij qi', where cij = h ' q ' .
i
i
Finally, because we're using orthonormal bases, we have cij =

hi ' qi '
hj qj .