Cylindrical coordinates
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Aschlafly (talk | contribs) at 22:14, November 29, 2009. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Cylindrical coordinates are a way to describe the location of a point in three-dimensional space based on "r", the distance from the origin in the x-y plane, "θ", the angle from the origin in the x-y plane, and z, the distance perpendicular to the x-y plane: (r,θ,z).
In a sense, cylindrical coordinates are polar coordinates with a third dimension added: (r,θ) correspond to the polar coordinates for (x,y).
The equations converting the parameters are as follows:
- r2 = x2 + y2
- tan(θ) = y/x
- x = r*cos(θ)
- y = r*sin(θ)