Cylindrical coordinate system

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A cylindrical coordinate system with origin O, polar axis A, and longitudinal axis L. The dot is the point with radial distance ρ = 4, angular coordinate φ = 130°, and height z = 4.





Cylindrical coordinates are useful in connection with objects and phenomena that have some rotational symmetry about the longitudinal axis, such as water flow in a straight pipe with round cross-section, heat distribution in a metal cylinder, electromagnetic fields produced by an electric current in a long, straight wire, and so on.

It is sometimes called "cylindrical polar coordinate"[3] and "polar cylindrical coordinate",[4] and is sometimes used to specify the position of stars in a galaxy ("galactocentric cylindrical polar coordinate").[5]


The three coordinates (ρ, φ, z) of a point P are defined as:

  • The radial distance ρ is the Euclidean distance from the z axis to the point P.
  • The azimuth φ is the angle between the reference direction on the chosen plane and the line from the origin to the projection of P on the plane.
  • The height z is the signed distance from the chosen plane to the point P.

Unique cylindrical coordinates[edit]

As in polar coordinates, the same point with cylindrical coordinates (ρ, φ, z) has infinitely many equivalent coordinates, namely (ρ, φ ± n×360°, z) and (−ρ, φ ± (2n + 1)×180°, z), where n is any integer. Moreover, if the radius ρ is zero, the azimuth is arbitrary.

In situations where one needs a unique set of coordinates for each point, one may restrict the radius to be non-negative (ρ ≥ 0) and the azimuth φ to lie in a specific interval spanning 360°, such as (−180°,+180°] or [0,360°).


The notation for cylindrical coordinates is not uniform. The ISO standard 31-11 recommends (ρ, φ, z), where ρ is the radial coordinate, φ the azimuth, and z the height. However, the radius is also often denoted r, the azimuth by θ or t, and the third coordinate by h or (if the cylindrical axis is considered horizontal) x, or any context-specific letter.

The coordinate surfaces of the cylindrical coordinates (ρ, φ, z). The red cylinder shows the points with ρ=2, the blue plane shows the points with z=1, and the yellow half-plane shows the points with φ=−60°. The z-axis is vertical and the x-axis is highlighted in green. The three surfaces intersect at the point P with those coordinates (shown as a black sphere); the Cartesian coordinates of P are roughly (1.0, −1.732, 1.0).
Cylindrical Coordinate Surfaces. The three orthogonal components, ρ (green), φ (red), and z (blue), each increasing at a constant rate. The point is at the intersection between the three colored surfaces.

In concrete situations, and in many mathematical illustrations, a positive angular coordinate is measured counterclockwise as seen from any point with positive height.

Coordinate system conversions[edit]

The cylindrical coordinate system is one of many three-dimensional coordinate systems. The following formulae may be used to convert between them.

Cartesian coordinates[edit]

For the conversion between cylindrical and Cartesian coordinate co-ordinates, it is convenient to assume that the reference plane of the former is the Cartesian xy plane (with equation z = 0), and the cylindrical axis is the Cartesian z axis. Then the z coordinate is the same in both systems, and the correspondence between cylindrical (ρ,φ) and Cartesian (x,y) are the same as for polar coordinates, namely

x = \rho \cos \varphi
y = \rho \sin \varphi

in one direction, and

\rho = \sqrt{x^{2}+y^{2}}
\varphi = 
    0 & \mbox{if } x = 0 \mbox{ and } y = 0\\
    \arcsin(\frac{y}{\rho}) & \mbox{if } x \geq 0 \\	
    -\arcsin(\frac{y}{\rho}) + \pi & \mbox{if } x < 0

in the other. The arcsin function is the inverse of the sine function, and is assumed to return an angle in the range [−π/2,+π/2] = [−90°,+90°]. These formulas yield an azimuth φ in the range [−90°,+270°]. For other formulas, see the polar coordinate article.

Many modern programming languages provide a function that will compute the correct azimuth φ, in the range (−π, π], given x and y, without the need to perform a case analysis as above. For example, this function is called by atan2(y,x) in the C programming language, and atan(y,x) in Common Lisp.

Spherical coordinates[edit]

Spherical coordinates (radius r, elevation or inclination θ, azimuth φ), may be converted into cylindrical coordinates by:

θ is elevation: θ is inclination:
 \rho = r \cos \theta \,  \rho = r \sin \theta \,
 \varphi  = \varphi \,  \varphi  = \varphi \,
 z  = r \sin \theta \,  z  = r \cos \theta \,

Cylindrical coordinates may be converted into spherical coordinates by:

θ is elevation: θ is inclination:
r=\sqrt{\rho^2+z^2} r=\sqrt{\rho^2+z^2}
{\theta}=\operatorname{arctan}(z/\rho) {\theta}=\operatorname{arctan}(\rho/z)
{\varphi}=\varphi \quad {\varphi}=\varphi \quad

Line and volume elements[edit]

See multiple integral for details of volume integration in cylindrical coordinates, and Del in cylindrical and spherical coordinates for vector calculus formulae.

In many problems involving cylindrical polar coordinates, it is useful to know the line and volume elements; these are used in integration to solve problems involving paths and volumes.

The line element is

\mathrm d\mathbf{r} = \mathrm d\rho\,\boldsymbol{\hat \rho} + \rho\,\mathrm d\varphi\,\boldsymbol{\hat\varphi} + \mathrm dz\,\mathbf{\hat z}.

The volume element is

\mathrm{d}V = \rho\,\mathrm{d}\rho\,\mathrm{d}\varphi\,\mathrm{d}z.

The surface element in a surface of constant radius \rho (a vertical cylinder) is

\mathrm{d}S_\rho= \rho\,\mathrm{d}\varphi\,\mathrm{d}z.

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

\mathrm{d}S_\varphi= \mathrm{d}\rho\,\mathrm{d}z.

The surface element in a surface of constant height z (a horizontal plane) is

\mathrm{d}S_z= \rho\,\mathrm{d}\rho\,\mathrm{d}\varphi.

The del operator in this system is written as

\nabla = \boldsymbol{\hat \rho}\frac{\partial}{\partial \rho} + \boldsymbol{\hat \varphi}\frac{1}{\rho}\frac{\partial}{\partial \varphi} + \mathbf{\hat z}\frac{\partial}{\partial z},

and the Laplace operator \nabla^2 is defined by

 \nabla^2 f
= {1 \over \rho} {\partial \over \partial \rho}
  \left( \rho {\partial f \over \partial \rho} \right)
+ {1 \over \rho^2} {\partial^2 f \over \partial \varphi^2}
+ {\partial^2 f \over \partial z^2 }.

Cylindrical harmonics[edit]

The solutions to the Laplace equation in a system with cylindrical symmetry are called cylindrical harmonics.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Krafft, C.; Volokitin, A. S. (1 January 2002). "Resonant electron beam interaction with several lower hybrid waves". Physics of Plasmas 9 (6): 2786–2797. doi:10.1063/1.1465420. ISSN 1089-7674. Retrieved 9 February 2013. cylindrical coordinates (r,θ,z) ... and Z=vbzt is the longitudinal position... 
  3. ^ J. E. Szymanski, Basic mathematics for electronic engineers: models and applications, Volume 16 of Tutorial guides in electronic engineering, Publisher Taylor & Francis, 1989, ISBN 0-278-00068-1, ISBN 978-0-278-00068-1 (page 170)
  4. ^ Robert H. Nunn, Intermediate fluid mechanics, Publisher Taylor & Francis, 1989, ISBN 0-89116-647-5, ISBN 978-0-89116-647-4, 343 pages (page 3)
  5. ^ Linda Siobhan Sparke, John Sill Gallagher, Galaxies in the universe: an introduction, Edition 2, Publisher Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-521-85593-4, ISBN 978-0-521-85593-8, 431 pages (page 37)

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]