Spherical coordinate system

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In mathematics, a spherical coordinate system is a coordinate

system for three-dimensional space where the position of a point is
specified by three numbers: the radial distance of that point from a
fixed origin, its polar angle measured from a fixed zenith direction,
and the azimuth angle of its orthogonal projection on a reference
plane that passes through the origin and is orthogonal to the zenith,
measured from a fixed reference direction on that plane. It can be
seen as the three-dimensional version of the polar coordinate system.

The radial distance is also called the radius or radial coordinate. The
polar angle may be called colatitude, zenith angle, normal angle, or
inclination angle.

The use of symbols and the order of the coordinates differs between Spherical coordinates (r, , ) as
sources. In one system frequently encountered in physics (r, , ) commonly used in physics (ISO
gives the radial distance, polar angle, and azimuthal angle, whereas convention): radial distance r, polar angle
in another system used in many mathematics books (r, , ) gives (theta), and azimuthal angle (phi).
the radial distance, azimuthal angle, and polar angle. In both systems The symbol (rho) is often used instead
is often used instead of r. Other conventions are also used, so great of r.
care needs to be taken to check which one is being used.

A number of different spherical coordinate systems following other

conventions are used outside mathematics. In a geographical
coordinate system positions are measured in latitude, longitude and
height or altitude. There are a number of different celestial
coordinate systems based on different fundamental planes and with
different terms for the various coordinates. The spherical coordinate
systems used in mathematics normally use radians rather than
degrees and measure the azimuthal angle counterclockwise from the
x-axis to the y-axis rather than clockwise from north (0) to east
(+90) like the horizontal coordinate system.[1] The polar angle is
often replaced by the elevation angle measured from the reference
plane. Elevation angle of zero is at the horizon.
Spherical coordinates (r, , ) as often
The spherical coordinate system generalises the two-dimensional used in mathematics: radial distance r,
polar coordinate system. It can also be extended to higher- azimuthal angle , and polar angle . The
dimensional spaces and is then referred to as a hyperspherical meanings of and have been swapped
coordinate system. compared to the physics convention.

Contents
1 Definition
1.1 Conventions
1.2 Unique coordinates
1.3 Plotting
2 Applications
2.1 In geography
2.2 In astronomy
3 Coordinate system conversions
3.1 Cartesian coordinates
 3.2 Cylindrical coordinates
4 Integration and differentiation in spherical coordinates
5 Kinematics
6 See also
7 Notes
8 Bibliography
9 External links

Definition
To define a spherical coordinate system, one must choose two orthogonal directions, the zenith and the azimuth
reference, and an origin point in space. These choices determine a reference plane that contains the origin and
is perpendicular to the zenith. The spherical coordinates of a point P are then defined as follows:

The radius or radial distance is the Euclidean distance from the origin O to P.
The inclination (or polar angle) is the angle between the zenith direction and the line segment OP.
The azimuth (or azimuthal angle) is the signed angle measured from the azimuth reference direction to
the orthogonal projection of the line segment OP on the reference plane.

The sign of the azimuth is determined by choosing what is a positive sense of turning about the zenith. This
choice is arbitrary, and is part of the coordinate system's definition.

The elevation angle is 90 degrees ( 2 radians) minus the inclination angle.

If the inclination is zero or 180 degrees ( radians), the azimuth is arbitrary. If the radius is zero, both azimuth
and inclination are arbitrary.

In linear algebra, the vector from the origin O to the point P is often called the position vector of P.

Conventions

Several different conventions exist for representing the three coordinates, and for the order in which they
should be written. The use of (r, , ) to denote radial distance, inclination (or elevation), and azimuth,
respectively, is common practice in physics, and is specified by ISO standard 80000-2:2009, and earlier in ISO
31-11 (1992).

However, some authors (including mathematicians) use for inclination (or elevation) and for azimuth,
which "provides a logical extension of the usual polar coordinates notation".[2] Some authors may also list the
azimuth before the inclination (or elevation), and/or use (rho) instead of r for radial distance. Some
combinations of these choices result in a left-handed coordinate system. The standard convention (r, , )
conflicts with the usual notation for the two-dimensional polar coordinates, where is often used for the
azimuth. It may also conflict with the notation used for three-dimensional cylindrical coordinates. [2]

The angles are typically measured in degrees () or radians (rad), where 360 = 2 rad. Degrees are most
common in geography, astronomy, and engineering, whereas radians are commonly used in mathematics and
theoretical physics. The unit for radial distance is usually determined by the context.

When the system is used for physical three-space, it is customary to use positive sign for azimuth angles that
are measured in the counter-clockwise sense from the reference direction on the reference plane, as seen from
the zenith side of the plane. This convention is used, in particular, for geographical coordinates, where the
"zenith" direction is north and positive azimuth (longitude) angles are measured eastwards from some prime
meridian.
 Major conventions
corresponding local geographical directions
coordinates right/left-handed
(Z, X, Y)
(r, inc, az,right) (U, S, E) right
(r, az,right, el) (U, E, N) right
(r, el, az,right) (U, N, E) left

Note: easting (E), northing (N), upwardness (U). Local azimuth angle would be measured, e.g.,
counterclockwise from S to E in the case of (U, S, E).

Unique coordinates

Any spherical coordinate triplet (r, , ) specifies a single point of three-dimensional space. On the other
hand, every point has infinitely many equivalent spherical coordinates. One can add or subtract any number of
full turns to either angular measure without changing the angles themselves, and therefore without changing the
point. It is also convenient, in many contexts, to allow negative radial distances, with the convention that
(r, , ) is equivalent to (r, + 180, ) for any r, , and . Moreover, (r, , ) is equivalent to
(r, , + 180).
If it is necessary to define a unique set of spherical coordinates for each point, one must restrict their ranges. A
common choice is:

r0
0 180 ( rad)
0 < 360 (2 rad)
However, the azimuth is often restricted to the interval (180, +180], or (, +] in radians, instead of
[0, 360). This is the standard convention for geographic longitude.

The range [0, 180] for inclination is equivalent to [90, +90] for elevation (latitude).

Even with these restrictions, if is 0 or 180 (elevation is 90 or 90) then the azimuth angle is arbitrary; and
if r is zero, both azimuth and inclination/elevation are arbitrary. To make the coordinates unique, one can use
the convention that in these cases the arbitrary coordinates are zero.

Plotting

To plot a dot from its spherical coordinates (r, , ), where is inclination, move r units from the origin in the
zenith direction, rotate by about the origin towards the azimuth reference direction, and rotate by about the
zenith in the proper direction.

Applications
The geographic coordinate system uses the azimuth and elevation of the spherical coordinate system to express
locations on Earth, calling them respectively longitude and latitude. Just as the two-dimensional Cartesian
coordinate system is useful on the plane, a two-dimensional spherical coordinate system is useful on the surface
of a sphere. In this system, the sphere is taken as a unit sphere, so the radius is unity and can generally be
ignored. This simplification can also be very useful when dealing with objects such as rotational matrices.

Spherical coordinates are useful in analyzing systems that have some degree of symmetry about a point, such as
volume integrals inside a sphere, the potential energy field surrounding a concentrated mass or charge, or
global weather simulation in a planet's atmosphere. A sphere that has the Cartesian equation x2 + y2 + z2 = c2
has the simple equation r = c in spherical coordinates.
Two important partial differential equations that arise in many physical problems, Laplace's equation and the
Helmholtz equation, allow a separation of variables in spherical coordinates. The angular portions of the
solutions to such equations take the form of spherical harmonics.

Another application is ergonomic design, where r is the arm length of a stationary person and the angles
describe the direction of the arm as it reaches out.

Three dimensional modeling of loudspeaker output patterns can be used

to predict their performance. A number of polar plots are required, taken
at a wide selection of frequencies, as the pattern changes greatly with
frequency. Polar plots help to show that many loudspeakers tend toward
omnidirectionality at lower frequencies.

The spherical coordinate system is also commonly used in 3D game

development to rotate the camera around the player's position.

In geography

To a first approximation, the geographic coordinate system uses

elevation angle (latitude) in degrees north of the equator plane, in the
range 90 90, instead of inclination. Latitude is either
geocentric latitude, measured at the Earth's center and designated
variously by , q, , c, g or geodetic latitude, measured by the
observer's local vertical, and commonly designated . The azimuth The output pattern of an industrial
angle (longitude), commonly denoted by , is measured in degrees east loudspeaker shown using spherical
or west from some conventional reference meridian (most commonly polar plots taken at six frequencies
the IERS Reference Meridian), so its domain is 180 180.
For positions on the Earth or other solid celestial body, the reference
plane is usually taken to be the plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

The polar angle, which is 90 minus the latitude and ranges from 0 to 180, is called colatitude in geography.

Instead of the radial distance, geographers commonly use altitude above or below some reference surface,
which may be the sea level or "mean" surface level for planets without liquid oceans. The radial distance r can
be computed from the altitude by adding the mean radius of the planet's reference surface, which is
approximately 6,360 11 km (3,952 7 miles) for Earth.

However, modern geographical coordinate systems are quite complex, and the positions implied by these
simple formulae may be wrong by several kilometers. The precise standard meanings of latitude, longitude and
altitude are currently defined by the World Geodetic System (WGS), and take into account the flattening of the
Earth at the poles (about 21 km or 13 miles) and many other details.

In astronomy

In astronomy there are a series of spherical coordinate systems that measure the elevation angle from different
fundamental planes. These reference planes are the observer's horizon, the celestial equator (defined by Earth's
rotation), the plane of the ecliptic (defined by Earth's orbit around the Sun), the plane of the earth terminator
(normal to the instantaneous direction to the Sun), and the galactic equator (defined by the rotation of the Milky
Way).

Coordinate system conversions

As the spherical coordinate system is only one of many three-dimensional coordinate systems, there exist
equations for converting coordinates between the spherical coordinate system and others.
Cartesian coordinates

The spherical coordinates of a point in the ISO convention (radius r, inclination , azimuth ) can be obtained
from its Cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) by the formulae

y
The inverse tangent denoted in = arctan
x must be suitably defined, taking into account the correct quadrant
of (x,y). See the article on atan2.

Alternatively, the conversion can be considered as two sequential rectangular to polar conversions: the first in
the Cartesian xy-plane from (x,y) to (R,), where R is the projection of r onto the xy-plane, and the second in
the Cartesian zR-plane from (z,R) to (r,). The correct quadrants for and are implied by the correctness of
the planar rectangular to polar conversions.

These formulae assume that the two systems have the same origin, that the spherical reference plane is the
Cartesian xy-plane, that is inclination from the z direction, and that the azimuth angles are measured from the
Cartesian x-axis (so that the y-axis has = +90). If measures elevation from the reference plane instead of
inclination from the zenith the arccos above becomes an arcsin, and the cos and sin below become
switched.

Conversely, the Cartesian coordinates may be retrieved from the spherical coordinates (radius r, inclination ,
azimuth ), where r [0, ), [0, ], [0, 2), by:

Cylindrical coordinates

Cylindrical coordinates (radius , azimuth , elevation z) may be converted into spherical coordinates (radius
r, inclination , azimuth ), by the formulas

Conversely, the spherical coordinates may be converted into cylindrical coordinates by the formulae

These formulae assume that the two systems have the same origin and same reference plane, measure the
azimuth angle in the same sense from the same axis, and that the spherical angle is inclination from the
cylindrical z-axis.
Integration and differentiation in spherical coordinates
The following equations assume that is inclination from the z (polar) axis (ambiguous since x, y, and z are
mutually normal):

The line element for an infinitesimal displacement from (r, , ) to (r + dr, + d, + d) is

where

are the local orthogonal unit vectors in the directions of increasing r, , and , respectively, and x , , and are
the unit vectors in Cartesian coordinates.

The surface element spanning from to + d and to + d on a spherical surface at (constant) radius r
is

Thus the differential solid angle is

The surface element in a surface of polar angle constant (a cone with vertex the origin) is

The surface element in a surface of azimuth constant (a vertical half-plane) is

The volume element spanning from r to r + dr, to + d, and to + d is

Thus, for example, a function f(r, , ) can be integrated over every point in 3 by the triple integral

The del operator in this system leads to the following expressions for gradient, divergence, curl and Laplacian:
Kinematics
In spherical coordinates the position of a point is written

Its velocity is then

and its acceleration is

In the case of a constant or =
2 , this reduces to vector calculus in polar coordinates.

See also
Celestial coordinate system
Del in cylindrical and spherical coordinates
Elevation (ballistics)
Euler angles
Gimbal lock
Hypersphere
Jacobian matrix and determinant
List of canonical coordinate transformations
Sphere
 Spherical harmonic
Theodolite
Vector fields in cylindrical and spherical coordinates
Yaw, pitch and roll

Notes
1. Duffett-Smith, P and Zwart, J, p. 34.
2. Eric W. Weisstein (2005-10-26). "Spherical Coordinates" (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SphericalCoor
dinates.html). MathWorld. Retrieved 2010-01-15.

Bibliography
Morse PM, Feshbach H (1953). Methods of Theoretical Physics, Part I. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 658.
ISBN 0-07-043316-X. LCCN 52011515.
Margenau H, Murphy GM (1956). The Mathematics of Physics and Chemistry. New York: D. van
Nostrand. pp. 177178. LCCN 55010911.
Korn GA, Korn TM (1961). Mathematical Handbook for Scientists and Engineers. New York: McGraw-
Hill. pp. 174175. LCCN 59014456. ASIN B0000CKZX7.
Sauer R, Szab I (1967). Mathematische Hilfsmittel des Ingenieurs. New York: Springer Verlag. pp. 95
96. LCCN 67025285.
Moon P, Spencer DE (1988). "Spherical Coordinates (r, , )". Field Theory Handbook, Including
Coordinate Systems, Differential Equations, and Their Solutions (corrected 2nd ed., 3rd print ed.). New
York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 2427 (Table 1.05). ISBN 978-0-387-18430-2.
Duffett-Smith P, Zwart J (2011). Practical Astronomy with your Calculator or Spreadsheet, 4th Edition.
New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0521146548.

External links
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001), "Spherical coordinates", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer,
ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
MathWorld description of spherical coordinates
Coordinate Converter converts between polar, Cartesian and spherical coordinates
Conventions for Spherical Coordinates Description of the different conventions in use for naming
components of spherical coordinates, along with a proposal for standardizing this.

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