CIRCULAR CYLINDRICAL COORDINATES (ρ, Φ, z):

• The circular cylindrical coordinate system is very

convenient whenever we are dealing with problems
having cylindrical symmetry.
• A point P in cylindrical coordinates is represented as (ρ,
Φ, z) and is as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Point
P in the
cylindrical
coordinate
system.
• From Figure 1, it is observed that ρ is the radius of the
cylinder passing through P or the radial distance from
the z-axis; Φ, called the azimuthal angle, is measured
from the x-axis in the xy-plane; and z is the same as in
the Cartesian system.
• The ranges of the variables are
0 ≤ ρ < ∞ , 0 ≤ Φ < 2π, -∞ < Z < ∞
• A vector A in cylindrical coordinates can be written as
(Aρ, AΦ, Az) or Aρaρ+AΦaΦ+Azaz
where aρ, aΦ, and az are unit vectors in the ρ-, Φ-, z-
directions as shown in Figure2.
The magnitude of A is