Coordinate Systems

Dr. [Link] 1
 COORDINATE
•SYSTEMS
RECTANGULAR or Cartesian
• CYLINDRICAL
• SPHERICAL

Examples:
Choice is based
Sheets - RECTANGULAR
on symmetry of
problem Wires/Cables - CYLINDRICAL
Spheres - SPHERICAL

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Cylindrical Symmetry Spherical Symmetry

Visualization (Animation) 3
 Orthogonal Coordinate Systems:
1. Cartesian Coordinates z
P(x,y,z)
Or
y
Rectangular Coordinates
P (x, y, z) x

z
z
P(r, Φ, z)
2. Cylindrical Coordinates
P (r, Φ, z) r y
x Φ
X=r cos Φ,
Y=r sin Φ,
Z=z z
3. Spherical Coordinates P(r, θ, Φ)
θ r
P (r, θ, Φ)
X=r sin θ cos Φ, y
x Φ
Y=r sin θ sin Φ,
Z=z cos θ
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 z z
P(r, θ, Φ)
Cartesian Coordinates P(x,y,z)
θ r P(x, y, z) y

y x
x Φ

Spherical Coordinates Cylindrical Coordinates

P(r, θ, Φ) z P(r, Φ, z)

z
P(, Φ, z)

r y
x Φ

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Cartesian coordinate system
• dx, dy, dz are infinitesimal
dz displacements along X,Y,Z.
Z
dy • Volume element is given by
dx dv = dx dy dz
P(x,y,z)
• Area element is
Y da = dx dy or dy dz or dxdz
• Line element is
X
dx or dy or dz
Ex: Show that volume of a cube of
edge a is a3.
a a a
V dv dx dy dz a 3
v 0 0 0 6
 Cartesian Coordinates

Differential quantities:

Length:

dl  xˆdx  yˆ dy  zˆdz
Area:

ds x  xˆdydz

ds y  yˆ dxdz

ds z  zˆdxdy
Volume:

dv dxdydz

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 AREA INTEGRALS

• integration over 2 “delta” distances dy

dx
Example:

y
7 6

6
AREA = dy dx
3 2
= 16

2 Note that: z = constant

3 7 x

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Cylindrical coordinate system (,,z)

Y



X 9
 Cylindrical coordinate system (,,z)
• d is infinitesimal displacement
Z along ,  d is along  and dz
dz
 d is along z direction.
• Volume element is given by
d
dv = d  d  dz
• Limits of integration of , , z are
Y
 d 0<<∞ , 0<  <2π, - ∞ <z <∞

d Ex: Show that Volume of a Cylinder of
d
X radius ‘R’ and height ‘H’ is π R2H .
 is azimuth angle
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Cylindrical Coordinates: Visualization of Volume element

Differential quantities:

Length element:

dl aˆ  d  aˆ d  aˆ z dz
Area element:

ds  aˆ  ddz

ds aˆ ddz

ds z aˆ z dd
Volume element:

dv  d d dz

Limits of integration of r, θ, φ are 0<<∞ , 0<z <∞ , o<φ <2π

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Volume of a Cylinder of radius ‘R’ and
Height ‘H’
V dv  d d dz
v
R 2 H
 d d dz
0 0 0

 R H 2

Try yourself:
1) Surface Area of Cylinder = 2πRH .
2) Base Area of Cylinder (Disc)=πR2.

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Spherically Symmetric problem
(r,θ,φ)
Z

θ
r
Y
φ

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 Spherical polar coordinate system (r,θ,φ)

• dr is infinitesimal displacement
along r, r dθ is along θ and r
sinθ dφ is along φ direction.
Z P(r, θ, φ) • Volume element is given by
dr dv = dr r dθ r sinθ dφ
r cos θ P
r dθ • Limits of integration of r, θ, φ are
θ r
0<r<∞ , 0<θ <π , o<φ <2π
Y Ex: Show that Volume of a sphere of
radius R is 4/3 π R3 .
φ r sinθ r sinθ dφ

X
θ is zenith angle( starts from +Z reaches up to –Z) ,
φ is azimuth angle (starts from +X direction and lies in x-y plane only)
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Spherical Coordinates: Volume element in space

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Volume of a sphere of radius ‘R’

V dv r dr sin  d d

2

v
R  2
 r dr sin  d d
2

0 0 0
3
R 4
 . 2 . 2   R 3
3 3

Try Yourself:
1)Surface area of the sphere= 4πR2 .
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 Points to remember
System Coordinates dl1 dl2 dl3
Cartesian x,y,z dx dy dz
Cylindrical , φ,z d dφ dz
Spherical r,θ, φ dr rdθ r sinθdφ

• Volume element : dv = dl1 dl2 dl3

• If Volume charge density ‘ρ’ depends only on ‘r’:
2
Q dv  4r dr
v l
Ex: For Circular plate: NOTE
Area element da=r dr dφ in both the
coordinate systems (because θ=900)

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 Quiz: Determine
a) Areas S1, S2 and S3.
b) Volume covered by these surfaces.
S3

Solution : Z
2 h
r Radius is r,
a ) i ) S1 rd dz rh(2  1 )
1 0
Height is h,
r h 1  2
ii ) S 2 dr dz rh S2
0 0 S1
2 r
r2
iii ) S 3  [Link]  (2  1 )
2 Y
1 0
h 2 r dφ
r2
b) V [Link] .dz  (2  1 )h
0 1 0
2
X 18
 Vector Analysis
• What about A.B=?, AxB=? and AB=?
• Scalar and Vector product:
A.B=ABcosθ Scalar or
(Axi+Ayj+Azk).(Bxi+Byj+Bzk)=AxBx+AyBy+AzBz

AxB=ABSinθ n Vector
n
(Result of cross product is always
perpendicular(normal) to the plane
B
of A and B
A

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