Laplacian Operator in Cartesian, Cylindrical, and Spherical

Coordinates
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The Laplacian Operator is very important in physics. It is nearly ubiquitous. Its form is simple and
symmetric in Cartesian coordinates.

In cylindrical form:

In spherical coordinates:

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Proof I: Converting Cartesian to Cylindrical Coordinates

In the above figure, the direction of ρ and φ depends on the ρ, φ, and z, while the direction of the z-is
independent of the ρ and φ component does not change. For the x and y components, the transformations
are

;
inversely,

Handout 1: EE528L
The chain rule relates the Cartesian operators to the cylindrical operators:

and

.
Calculate the derivatives for the chain rule. First ρ:

Now φ, using implicit differentiation:

Now write the Cartesian derivatives in terms of the cylindrical derivatives.

Adding both the above equations together and then adding the independent second order differential
of z, provides the final form of the Laplacian operator in the cylindrical coordinates.

Handout 1: EE528L
Proof II: Converting Cartesian to Spherical Coordinates

Since forces act radially; e.g., the gravitational force between masses and the electric force between
charged particles, spherical coordinates are the natural basis for this separation in three dimensions.
The transformations of the coordinates themselves look rather. From spherical to Cartesian:

Or from Cartesian to spherical:

Now take derivatives of r, θ, and φ. Let’s begin with r.

Next find the partial derivatives of θ, once again by implicit differentiation. To find the derivatives
with respect to x and y, use the expression for cos(θ).

Handout 1: EE528L
Then use the expression for sin(θ) to find the derivative with respect to z.

The derivatives of φ are the same as they were for cylindrical coordinates. For posterity, here they are
in terms of spherical coordinates.

Now comes the chain rule with three variables involved. The simplest of the three terms in the
Cartesian Laplacian to translate is z, since it is independent of the azimuthal angle.

The x and y versions rather need more mathematical manipulation.

This calls for an organized approach. First, consider those that go like the second derivative of r and
simplify by collecting the three terms (one x, one y, one z)

Next, consider the terms that are the second derivative of φ and simplify as below

To complete the diagonal derivatives, gather the three terms that come from the product of two
derivatives with respect to θ to find the contribution as below:

Handout 1: EE528L
Next, collect all terms that result from the product of an r derivative and a θ derivative. This way, at
least all z terms will be finished. The simplification looks as follows:

Consider the 4 θ-φ cross terms and the remaining bit is

Only four more terms! Take the contributions from r-φ cross terms. The terms that don't cancel each
other give the contribution

.
Finally, we are ready to write the Laplacian operator in spherical coordinates:

This can be rewritten in a slightly tidier form:

Notice that multiplying the whole operator by r2 completely separates the angular terms from the radial
term. That is why all that work was worthwhile.

Now you are ready to solve some partial differential equations in Cylindrical and Spherical
Coordinates!!!

Handout 1: EE528L