List of common coordinate transformations

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This is a list of some of the most commonly used coordinate transformations.

Contents
1 2-Dimensional 1.1 To Cartesian coordinates from polar coordinates 1.2 To polar coordinates from Cartesian coordinates 1.3 To Cartesian coordinates from log-polar coordinates 1.4 To log-polar coordinates from Cartesian coordinates 1.5 To Cartesian coordinates from bipolar coordinates

1.6 To Cartesian coordinates from two-center bipolar coordinates[1] 1.7 To polar coordinates from two-center bipolar coordinates 1.8 To Cartesian coordinates from Cesro equation 1.9 Arc length and curvature from Cartesian coordinates 1.10 Arc length and curvature from polar coordinates 2 3-Dimensional 2.1 To Cartesian coordinates 2.1.1 From spherical coordinates 2.1.2 From cylindrical coordinates 2.2 To Spherical coordinates 2.2.1 From Cartesian coordinates 2.2.2 From cylindrical coordinates 2.3 To cylindrical coordinates 2.3.1 From Cartesian coordinates 2.3.2 From spherical coordinates 2.4 Arc length, curvature and torsion from cartesian coordinates 3 References

2-Dimensional
Let (x, y) be the standard Cartesian coordinates, and r and the standard polar coordinates.

To Cartesian coordinates from polar coordinates

To polar coordinates from Cartesian coordinates

Note: solving for

returns the resultant angle in the rst quadrant (

). To

nd , one must refer to the original Cartesian coordinate, determine the quadrant in which lies (ex (3,-3) [Cartesian] lies in QIV), then use the following to solve for : For For For For in QI: in QII: in QIII: in QIV: must be solved for in this manner because for all values of , , and is periodic (with period ). This means that is

The value for

only dened for

the inverse function will only give values in the domain of the function, but restricted to a single period. Hence, the range of the inverse function is only half a full circle. Note that one can also use

To Cartesian coordinates from log-polar coordinates

Main article: Log-polar coordinates

By using complex numbers

, the transformation can be written as

i.e. it is given by the complex exponential function.

To log-polar coordinates from Cartesian coordinates

To Cartesian coordinates from bipolar coordinates

Main article: bipolar coordinates

To Cartesian coordinates from two-center bipolar coordinates[1]

Main article: two-center bipolar coordinates

To polar coordinates from two-center bipolar coordinates

Where 2c is the distance between the poles.

To Cartesian coordinates from Cesro equation

Main article: Cesro equation

Arc length and curvature from Cartesian coordinates

Arc length and curvature from polar coordinates

3-Dimensional
Let (x, y, z) be the standard Cartesian coordinates, and (, , ) the spherical coordinates, with the angle measured away from the +Z axis. As has a range of 360 the same considerations as in polar (2 dimensional) coordinates apply whenever an arctangent of it is taken. has a range of 180, running from 0 to 180, and does not pose any problem when calculated from an arccosine, but beware for an arctangent. If, in the alternative denition, is chosen to run from 90 to +90, in opposite direction of the earlier denition, it can be found uniquely from an arcsine, but beware of an arccotangent. In this case in all formulas below all arguments in should have sine and cosine exchanged, and as derivative also a plus and minus exchanged. All divisions by zero result in special cases of being directions along one of the main axes and are in practice most easily solved by observation.

To Cartesian coordinates
From spherical coordinates Main article: spherical coordinates

So for the volume element:

From cylindrical coordinates Main article: cylindrical coordinates

So for the volume element:

To Spherical coordinates

From Cartesian coordinates

So for the volume element:

From cylindrical coordinates

To cylindrical coordinates
From Cartesian coordinates

From spherical coordinates

Arc length, curvature and torsion from cartesian coordinates

References
1. ^ Weisstein, Eric W.. "Bipolar Coordinates." Treasure Troves. 26 May 1999. Sociology and Anthropology China. 14 February 2007 [1] (http://bbs.sachina.pku.edu.cn /Stat/Math_World/math/b/b233.htm)

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