1. Review

  • Fill in the table of coordinate transforms between spherical, rectangular, and cylindrical systems. Do this by extracting the relevant equations from the book and putting onto a single (nice) reference page either in the template below or your own reference system.

This will be handy for quick reference later.
To→
↓From
cartesian cylindrical spherical





cartesian








cylindrical








spherical




2. Notes

TrigonometryTriangle2
Figure 1. Remember your trigonometry? [1]

Inverse tangent can cause issues when the denominator becomes zero.

In Matlab and other languages, use

atan2(y, x) or atan2d(y, x)

This yields the 4-quadrant result. Recall that otherwise there is a 180° ambiguity in the \(\tan^{-1}(\,)\).


1. Modified version from https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/File:TrigonometryTriangle.svg