Curvilinear co-ordinates and Co-ordinate

Transformations

Mainak Sengupta

EE, IIEST Shibpur,

Howrah, WB, India

September 9, 2021

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 Discussion Outline

Discussion Outline

• Introduction - Different Co-ordinate systems and their need.

• Elementary concepts of basis vectors - relevance to co-ordinate systems.
• Transformation between common Co-ordinate systems.
• Transformation of unit vectors.
• Forms of space derivatives in common Co-ordinate systems.
• Conclusions
• Exercises
• Acknowledgements
• References

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 Introduction

Introduction - Popular 3-D Co-ordinate systems

• 3 common Co-ordinate systems.

Co-Ordinate System variable Unit vectors Remarks[2]

Cartesian x, y , z i, j, k Translational symmetry
Spherical r , θ, φ r, θ, φ Rotational symmetry
Cylindrical r , θ, z r, θ, z Both
Table: Some known co-ordinate systems and their properties

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 Introduction

Introduction - Different 3-D Co-ordinate systems

• More on 14 different Co-ordinate systems.

Axis of translation Axis of rotation Neither

Cartesian
Circular Cylindrical
Elliptic Cylindrical
Parabolic Cylindrical
Bipolar
Table: Some more co-ordinate systems and their properties [2]
Confocal ellipsoidal
Circular Cylindrical
Spherical (3-axes)
Prolate Spheroidal
Oblate Spheroidal
Parabolic
Toroidal
Bi-spherical
Conical
Confocal Paraboloidal

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 Introduction

More on different co-ordinate systems

• The need and existence for so many systems arise from geometric
inherent configuration of different fields.
• To put it simply distances on a spiral geometry shall appear straight in a
spiral(?) co-ordinate system - think of an ant moving on a ”mosquito
repellent coil”!!.
• For example the distances on the Globe appear straight in a latitude-
longitude based co-ordinate system.
• The major difference that arises between the co-ordinate systems are on
two counts.
1 Dimensionally the co-ordinates are not in distance or length units in
all cases, unlike Cartesian co-ordinate system
2 The unit vector sets of the different systems are not, of course,
mutually parallel

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 Elementary concepts of Co-ord systems

Key concepts of Co-ordinate systems I

• Unit vectors form the basis of 3D Co-ordinate systems.

• In mathematical parlance, Unit vectors represent a unique orthogonal set

of basis vectors (orthogonal 3-D basis set).

• To understand clearly one has to consider,

1 The concept of Basis vectors.
2 Dimension of a Vector space.
3 The concept of Linear independence.

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 Elementary concepts of Co-ord systems

Key concepts of Co-ordinate systems II

• Let us consider two vec-
tors v~1 and v~2 in a 2-D
space (here, plane of the
document).

v~1 = 8i + 4j
v~2 = 2i + 8 j

• If,

v~2 6= k v~1

for any constant k, then

v~1 and v~2 are linearly in-
Figure: Basis vectors dependent in that vector
space.
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 Elementary concepts of Co-ord systems

Key concepts of Co-ordinate systems III

• A set of vectors that obey vector algebraic operations can be defined as
a vector space.
• The maximum number vectors that can be defined in a vector space (the
2-D set of which v~1 and v~2 , here are members, that is the x-y plane drawn
earlier) represent the dimension of that vector space.
• In a, 2D (vector) space (say x-y plane here) any other vector can be
expressed as linear combination of a maximum of two vectors (v~1 and v~2 ,
here).
• We can cross-check that any linear combination of v~1 and v~2 ,

v~3 = k1 v~1 + k2 v~2

= (8k1 + 2k2 ) i + (4k1 + 8k2 ) j

can give us any other vector for real values of k1 and k2 .

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 Elementary concepts of Co-ord systems

Key concepts of Co-ordinate systems IV

• Hence, v~1 and v~2 can be chosen as basis vectors of the 2-dimensional 2D
(vector) space (say x-y plane here), in the example above.
• For an n-dimensional vector space one shall have n-basis vectors.
• When basis vectors are mutually orthogonal we have an orthogonal basis
set which is unique.
• A unique 3D basis set of orthogonal unit magnitude 3 basis vectors’ set
form a 3-D Co-ordinate system.

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 Transformation between co-ordinate systems

Spherical co-ordinate system - I

x = r sinθ cosφ
y = r sinθ sinφ
z = r cosθ (1)

Figure: The spherical co-ordinate

system [1]

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 Transformation between co-ordinate systems

Spherical co-ordinate system - II

• At point P we can define the position vector as below.

~l = xi + yj + zk
= r sinθ cosφ i + r sinθ sinφ j + r cosθ k (2)

• Again at P, we can define an infinitesimal displacement vector as below.

d~l = ~x + dl
dl ~y + dl~z (3)
also, ~ r + dl~θ + dl~φ
= dl (4)

• There is a crucial though extremely subtle difference between the

representations in (3) and (4) above - as detailed below.

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 Transformation between co-ordinate systems

Spherical co-ordinate system - III

• We note from (3) above:

~x + dl
dl ~y + dl
~z = dlx i + dly j + dlz k
= dx i + dy j + dz k (5)

• But, for (4) above:

~ r + dl~θ + dl~φ
dl = dlr rˆ + dlθ θ̂ + dlφ φ̂
= dr rˆ + r dθ θ̂ + r sin θ dφ φ̂ (6)
6= dr rˆ + dθ θ̂ + dφ φ̂ (7)

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 Transformation between co-ordinate systems

Spherical co-ordinate system - IV

• Here, we can represent an infinitesimal volume element ’dτ ’ as product
of infinitesimal lengths.
dτ = dlr dlθ dlφ (8)
• So, that the volume of a sphere of radius ’R’ can be evaluated as,
Z
Volumesphere = dτ
ZZZ
= r 2 sinθ dr dθ dφ
r , θ, φ
Z  Z  Z 
2
= r dr sinθdθ dφ
0, R 0, π 0, 2π
 3
R 4 3
= (2)(2π) = πR
3 3
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 Transformation between co-ordinate systems

Spherical co-ordinate system - V

• Area calculations cannot be generalised..
• Depends on the chosen surface.
• For an elemental part of the outer surface of sphere, we note that,

d~a1 = d~lθ × d~lφ

= dlθ dlφ rˆ
= r 2 sinθ dθ dφ rˆ (9)

• Again, for the upper equatorial plane.

d~a2 = d~lr × d~lφ

= dlr dlφ (−θ̂)
= (−) r sinθ dr dφ θ̂ (10)
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 Transformation between co-ordinate systems

Spherical co-ordinate system - VI

• The rest is left as exercise.

• Please try the area exercises above.

• Particularly note and explain the resultant direction issues in the two
cases.

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - I

• Let us study how even unit vectors get transformed.

~r|
~ r / |dl



rˆ = dl (11)
~ r / dlr



= dl
 ~   ~ 
∂l ∂l
= dr / dr (12)
∂r ∂r
 ~  ~ 
∂l ∂l
= / (13)
∂r ∂r

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - II

• Similarly,

dl~θ / |dl~θ |



θ̂ =
 ~  ~ 
∂l ∂l
= / (14)
∂θ ∂θ
dl~φ / |dl~φ |



and, φ̂ =
 ~  ~ 
∂l ∂l
= / (15)
∂φ ∂φ

• Now, from (3) above, we get,

∂~l
= sinθ cosφ i + sinθ sinφ j + cosθ k (16)
∂r

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - III

• Similarly,

∂~l
= r cosθ cosφ i + r cosθ sinφ j − r sinθ k (17)
∂θ
∂~l
= − r sinθ sinφ i + r sinθ cosφ j (18)
∂φ

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - IV

• The magnitudes,

∂~l p
= sin2 θ cos 2 φ + sin2 θ sin2 φ + cos 2 θ
∂r
= 1 (19)
∂~l p
= r 2 cos 2 θ cos 2 φ + r 2 cos 2 θ sin2 φ + r 2 sin2 θ
∂θ
= r (20)
∂~l p
= r 2 sin2 θ sin2 φ + r 2 sin2 θ cos 2 φ
∂φ
= r sinθ (21)

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - V

• Therefore, combining (13) to (15), (16) to (18) and (19) to (21), we get,

rˆ = sinθ cosφ i + sinθ sinφ j + cosθ k (22)

θ̂ = cosθ cosφ i + cosθ sinφ j − sinθ k (23)
φ̂ = − sinφ i + cosφ j (24)

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - VI

• In matrix representation,

    
rˆ sinθ cosφ sinθ sinφ cosθ i
 θ̂  = cosθ cosφ cosθ sinφ −sinθ  j  (25)
φ̂ −sinφ cosφ 0 k

• In short,

   
rˆ
  i
 θ̂  = C  j  (26)
φ̂ k

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - VII

• Similarly,

   
i rˆ
 −1
j = C  θ̂  (27)
k φ̂

• To find the inverse of a matrix, we apply our standard definitions.

• Let us try!

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - VIII

• We find,

 −1  T
C = C (28)

• Exercises below shall lead us to deeper understanding on why it is so.

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - more

implications - I

1 Let us go back to the expression for gradient, in Cartesian

co-ordinates.
 
∂f ∂f ∂f
(∇f ) = i+ j+ k . (29)
∂x ∂y ∂z

2 The Cartesian unit vectors (i, j), k have to be transformed Spherical

unit vectors as shown above.

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Cartesian  Spherical transformations - more

implications - II

3 Also each partial derivative in Cartesian system has to be transformed

corresponding Spherical term using mutual derivatives and the the
chain rule as below. For example

     
∂f ∂f ∂r ∂f ∂θ ∂f ∂φ
= + + (30)
∂x ∂r ∂x ∂θ ∂x ∂φ ∂x

4 Two more such expressions are there for the other terms in (29)
above.

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Forms of first space derivatives in some other co-ordinate

systems - I

1 First, the expression for the gradient.

∂f 1 ∂f 1 ∂f
∇f = rˆ + θ̂ + φ̂ (31)
∂r r ∂θ r sinθ ∂φ

2 Next we have the expression for divergence.

1 ∂ 2 1 ∂ 1 ∂
∇.~F = 2 (r fr ) + (sinθ .fθ ) + fφ (32)
r ∂r r sinθ ∂θ r sinθ ∂φ

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 The Co-ordinate transformations

Forms of first space derivatives in some other co-ordinate

systems - II

3 Finally the expression for curl.

 
1 ∂ ∂fθ
∇ × ~F = (sinθ .fφ ) − rˆ
r sinθ ∂θ ∂φ
 
1 1 ∂fr ∂
+ − (r fφ ) θ̂
r sinθ ∂φ ∂r
 
1 ∂ ∂fr
+ (r fθ ) − φ̂ (33)
r ∂r ∂θ

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 Conclusions

Conclusions

• 14 different 3D co-ordinate systems - are possible.

• Choice of Co-ord systems depends on field geometry/ configuration.
• Unit vectors hold the key to each Co-ord system.
• Mutual transformations between Co-ord systems imperative and major
analytical simplifying tool.
• Both Unit vectors and mutual cross derivatives get involved in the
transformation.
• Forms the basis for ”Gauge Transformation”.
• Electric fields oriented more to Spherical and Magnetic fields oriented
more to Cylindrical Co-ordinate systems.

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 Exercises

Exercises I

1 Express Cylindrical unit vectors in terms of Cartesian unit vectors.

2 Express Cartesian unit vectors in terms of Cylindrical unit vectors.
3 Hence, or otherwise, express Cylindrical unit vectors in terms of
Spherical unit vectors.
4 Hence, or otherwise, express Spherical unit vectors in terms of
Cylindrical unit vectors.
5 Find out from (25) above the values of
(a) rˆ . rˆ
(b) θ̂ . θ̂
(c) φ̂ . φ̂
6 Find out from (25) above the values of
(a) rˆ × θ̂
(b) θ̂ . φ̂
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 Exercises

Exercises II

(c) φ̂ . rˆ and other mutual cross products.

7 What may be the reason behind the relation in (28) above being
true? Please justify.

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 Regards

Acknowledgements
• Late Prof. K. V. Ratnam- my M.Tech and Ph. D Supervisor and my
GURU.
• Griffiths & Arfken - for their exquisite books,
• Late Prof. D. RaiChaudhuri - for encouraging me to read the above
books,
• Prof. Aparajita Sengupta - for explaining and clarifying basis vectors to
me,
• My teachers at all levels.
• All students, particularly at the my PG & R level and colleagues at
IIEST, Shibpur.
• My entire family for the continued support!
• Prof. G. P Sastry for sustaining & furthering my interest in Physics!
• Most importantly - all of you, in this course.
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 References

References I

David J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 4th ed.,2017,

Cambridge University Press, New Delhi, India, ISBN-13:
978-1108420419 & ISBN-10: 1108420419.
George Arfken, Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 1st ed.,1966,
Academic Press, Library of Congress Catalog No. 65-27740.
Erwin Kreyszig, Advanced Engg. mathematics, 5th ed.,1996, John
Wiley & sons, 1983, New Age(India) Pvt. Ltd. reprint 1996,
ISBN-81-224-0016-7.
Richard P. Feynmann, R.B. Leighton and M. Sands, The Feynmann
Lectures on Physics, Vol I-III, The Millenium ed.,12013, Dorling
Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd., ISBN-10: & ISBN-13: .

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 QA

Questions please?

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