Coordinate system - Wikipedia 01/01/2025, 00:30
Coordinate system
In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses
one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely
determine the position of the points or other geometric
elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space.[1][2] The
order of the coordinates is significant, and they are
sometimes identified by their position in an ordered tuple
and sometimes by a letter, as in "the x-coordinate". The
coordinates are taken to be real numbers in elementary
mathematics, but may be complex numbers or elements of a
more abstract system such as a commutative ring. The use
The spherical coordinate system is
of a coordinate system allows problems in geometry to be
commonly used in physics. It assigns
translated into problems about numbers and vice versa; this three numbers (known as
is the basis of analytic geometry.[3] coordinates) to every point in
Euclidean space: radial distance r,
polar angle θ (theta), and azimuthal
Common coordinate systems angle φ (phi). The symbol ρ (rho) is
often used instead of r.
Number line
The simplest example of a coordinate system is the identification of points on a line with real
numbers using the number line. In this system, an arbitrary point O (the origin) is chosen on a
given line. The coordinate of a point P is defined as the signed distance from O to P, where the
signed distance is the distance taken as positive or negative depending on which side of the line
P lies. Each point is given a unique coordinate and each real number is the coordinate of a
unique point.[4]
Cartesian coordinate system
The prototypical example of a coordinate system is the Cartesian coordinate system. In the
plane, two perpendicular lines are chosen and the coordinates of a point are taken to be the
signed distances to the lines.[5] In three dimensions, three mutually orthogonal planes are
chosen and the three coordinates of a point are the signed distances to each of the planes.[6]
This can be generalized to create n coordinates for any point in n-dimensional Euclidean space.
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Depending on the direction and order of the coordinate axes, the three-dimensional system may
be a right-handed or a left-handed system.
Polar coordinate system
Another common coordinate
system for the plane is the
polar coordinate system.[7]
A point is chosen as the pole
and a ray from this point is
taken as the polar axis. For a
given angle θ, there is a
single line through the pole
whose angle with the polar
axis is θ (measured
counterclockwise from the
axis to the line). Then there The Cartesian coordinate system in The Cartesian coordinate system in
is a unique point on this line the plane three-dimensional space
whose signed distance from
the origin is r for given
number r. For a given pair of coordinates (r, θ) there is a single point, but any point is
represented by many pairs of coordinates. For example, (r, θ), (r, θ+2π) and (−r, θ+π) are all
polar coordinates for the same point. The pole is represented by (0, θ) for any value of θ.
Cylindrical and spherical coordinate systems
There are two common methods for extending the polar
coordinate system to three dimensions. In the cylindrical
coordinate system, a z-coordinate with the same meaning
as in Cartesian coordinates is added to the r and θ polar
coordinates giving a triple (r, θ, z).[8] Spherical coordinates
take this a step further by converting the pair of cylindrical
coordinates (r, z) to polar coordinates (ρ, φ) giving a triple
(ρ, θ, φ).[9]
Homogeneous coordinate system
A point in the plane may be represented in homogeneous Cylindrical coordinate system
coordinates by a triple (x, y, z) where x/z and y/z are the
Cartesian coordinates of the point.[10] This introduces an "extra" coordinate since only two are
needed to specify a point on the plane, but this system is useful in that it represents any point
on the projective plane without the use of infinity. In general, a homogeneous coordinate system
is one where only the ratios of the coordinates are significant and not the actual values.
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Other commonly used systems
Some other common coordinate systems are the following:
Curvilinear coordinates are a generalization of coordinate systems generally; the system is
based on the intersection of curves.
Orthogonal coordinates: coordinate surfaces meet at right angles
Skew coordinates: coordinate surfaces are not orthogonal
The log-polar coordinate system represents a point in the plane by the logarithm of the
distance from the origin and an angle measured from a reference line intersecting the origin.
Plücker coordinates are a way of representing lines in 3D Euclidean space using a six-tuple
of numbers as homogeneous coordinates.
Generalized coordinates are used in the Lagrangian treatment of mechanics.
Canonical coordinates are used in the Hamiltonian treatment of mechanics.
Barycentric coordinate system as used for ternary plots and more generally in the analysis
of triangles.
Trilinear coordinates are used in the context of triangles.
There are ways of describing curves without coordinates, using intrinsic equations that use
invariant quantities such as curvature and arc length. These include:
The Whewell equation relates arc length and the tangential angle.
The Cesàro equation relates arc length and curvature.
Coordinates of geometric objects
Coordinates systems are often used to specify the position of a point, but they may also be used
to specify the position of more complex figures such as lines, planes, circles or spheres. For
example, Plücker coordinates are used to determine the position of a line in space.[11] When
there is a need, the type of figure being described is used to distinguish the type of coordinate
system, for example the term line coordinates is used for any coordinate system that specifies
the position of a line.
It may occur that systems of coordinates for two different sets of geometric figures are
equivalent in terms of their analysis. An example of this is the systems of homogeneous
coordinates for points and lines in the projective plane. The two systems in a case like this are
said to be dualistic. Dualistic systems have the property that results from one system can be
carried over to the other since these results are only different interpretations of the same
analytical result; this is known as the principle of duality.[12]
Transformations
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There are often many different possible coordinate systems for describing geometrical figures.
The relationship between different systems is described by coordinate transformations, which
give formulas for the coordinates in one system in terms of the coordinates in another system.
For example, in the plane, if Cartesian coordinates (x, y) and polar coordinates (r, θ) have the
same origin, and the polar axis is the positive x axis, then the coordinate transformation from
polar to Cartesian coordinates is given by x = r cosθ and y = r sinθ.
With every bijection from the space to itself two coordinate transformations can be associated:
Such that the new coordinates of the image of each point are the same as the old
coordinates of the original point (the formulas for the mapping are the inverse of those for
the coordinate transformation)
Such that the old coordinates of the image of each point are the same as the new
coordinates of the original point (the formulas for the mapping are the same as those for the
coordinate transformation)
For example, in 1D, if the mapping is a translation of 3 to the right, the first moves the origin
from 0 to 3, so that the coordinate of each point becomes 3 less, while the second moves the
origin from 0 to −3, so that the coordinate of each point becomes 3 more.
Coordinate lines/curves
Given a coordinate system, if one of the coordinates of a point varies while the other coordinates
are held constant, then the resulting curve is called a coordinate curve. If a coordinate curve
is a straight line, it is called a coordinate line. A coordinate system for which some coordinate
curves are not lines is called a curvilinear coordinate system.[13] Orthogonal coordinates are a
special but extremely common case of curvilinear coordinates.
A coordinate line with all other constant coordinates equal to zero is called a coordinate axis,
an oriented line used for assigning coordinates. In a Cartesian coordinate system, all
coordinates curves are lines, and, therefore, there are as many coordinate axes as coordinates.
Moreover, the coordinate axes are pairwise orthogonal.
A polar coordinate system is a curvilinear system where coordinate curves are lines or circles.
However, one of the coordinate curves is reduced to a single point, the origin, which is often
viewed as a circle of radius zero. Similarly, spherical and cylindrical coordinate systems have
coordinate curves that are lines, circles or circles of radius zero.
Many curves can occur as coordinate curves. For example, the coordinate curves of parabolic
coordinates are parabolas.
Coordinate planes/surfaces
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In three-dimensional space, if one coordinate is held
constant and the other two are allowed to vary, then the
resulting surface is called a coordinate surface. For
example, the coordinate surfaces obtained by holding ρ
constant in the spherical coordinate system are the spheres
with center at the origin. In three-dimensional space the
intersection of two coordinate surfaces is a coordinate curve.
In the Cartesian coordinate system we may speak of
coordinate planes. Similarly, coordinate
hypersurfaces are the (n − 1)-dimensional spaces
resulting from fixing a single coordinate of an n-
dimensional coordinate system.[14]
Coordinate surfaces of the three-
dimensional paraboloidal
coordinates. Coordinate maps
The concept of a coordinate map, or coordinate chart is
central to the theory of manifolds. A coordinate map is essentially a coordinate system for a
subset of a given space with the property that each point has exactly one set of coordinates.
More precisely, a coordinate map is a homeomorphism from an open subset of a space X to an
open subset of Rn.[15] It is often not possible to provide one consistent coordinate system for an
entire space. In this case, a collection of coordinate maps are put together to form an atlas
covering the space. A space equipped with such an atlas is called a manifold and additional
structure can be defined on a manifold if the structure is consistent where the coordinate maps
overlap. For example, a differentiable manifold is a manifold where the change of coordinates
from one coordinate map to another is always a differentiable function.
Orientation-based coordinates
In geometry and kinematics, coordinate systems are used to describe the (linear) position of
points and the angular position of axes, planes, and rigid bodies.[16] In the latter case, the
orientation of a second (typically referred to as "local") coordinate system, fixed to the node, is
defined based on the first (typically referred to as "global" or "world" coordinate system). For
instance, the orientation of a rigid body can be represented by an orientation matrix, which
includes, in its three columns, the Cartesian coordinates of three points. These points are used
to define the orientation of the axes of the local system; they are the tips of three unit vectors
aligned with those axes.
Geographic systems
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The Earth as a whole is one of the most common geometric spaces requiring the precise
measurement of location, and thus coordinate systems. Starting with the Greeks of the
Hellenistic period, a variety of coordinate systems have been developed based on the types
above, including:
Geographic coordinate system, the spherical coordinates of latitude and longitude
Projected coordinate systems, including thousands of cartesian coordinate systems, each
based on a map projection to create a planar surface of the world or a region.
Geocentric coordinate system, a three-dimensional cartesian coordinate system that models
the earth as an object, and are most commonly used for modeling the orbits of satellites,
including the Global Positioning System and other satellite navigation systems.
See also
Absolute angular momentum
Alphanumeric grid
Axes conventions in engineering
Celestial coordinate system
Coordinate-free
Fractional coordinates
Frame of reference
Galilean transformation
Grid reference
Nomogram, graphical representations of different coordinate systems
Reference system
Rotation of axes
Translation of axes
Relativistic coordinate systems
Eddington–Finkelstein coordinates
Gaussian polar coordinates
Gullstrand–Painlevé coordinates
Isotropic coordinates
Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates
Schwarzschild coordinates
References
Citations
1. Woods p. 1
2. Weisstein, Eric W. "Coordinate System" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/CoordinateSystem.
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2. Weisstein, Eric W. "Coordinate System" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/CoordinateSystem.
html). MathWorld.
3. Weisstein, Eric W. "Coordinates" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Coordinates.html).
MathWorld.
4. Stewart, James B.; Redlin, Lothar; Watson, Saleem (2008). College Algebra (5th ed.).
Brooks Cole. pp. 13–19. ISBN 978-0-495-56521-5.
5. Anton, Howard; Bivens, Irl C.; Davis, Stephen (2021). Calculus: Multivariable (https://books.
google.com/books?id=001EEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA657). John Wiley & Sons. p. 657. ISBN 978-
1-119-77798-4.
6. Moon P, Spencer DE (1988). "Rectangular Coordinates (x, y, z)". Field Theory Handbook,
Including Coordinate Systems, Differential Equations, and Their Solutions (corrected 2nd,
3rd print ed.). New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 9–11 (Table 1.01). ISBN 978-0-387-18430-2.
7. Finney, Ross; George Thomas; Franklin Demana; Bert Waits (June 1994). Calculus:
Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic (https://archive.org/details/calculusgraphica00ross) (Single
Variable Version ed.). Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. ISBN 0-201-55478-X.
8. Margenau, Henry; Murphy, George M. (1956). The Mathematics of Physics and Chemistry (
https://archive.org/details/mathematicsofphy0002marg). New York City: D. van Nostrand.
p. 178 (https://archive.org/details/mathematicsofphy0002marg/page/178). ISBN 978-0-
88275-423-9. LCCN 55010911 (https://lccn.loc.gov/55010911). OCLC 3017486 (https://sear
ch.worldcat.org/oclc/3017486).
9. Morse, PM; Feshbach, H (1953). Methods of Theoretical Physics, Part I. New York:
McGraw-Hill. p. 658. ISBN 0-07-043316-X. LCCN 52011515 (https://lccn.loc.gov/52011515).
10. Jones, Alfred Clement (1912). An Introduction to Algebraical Geometry. Clarendon.
11. Hodge, W.V.D.; D. Pedoe (1994) [1947]. Methods of Algebraic Geometry, Volume I
(Book II). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-46900-5.
12. Woods p. 2
13. Tang, K. T. (2006). Mathematical Methods for Engineers and Scientists. Vol. 2. Springer.
p. 13. ISBN 3-540-30268-9.
14. Liseikin, Vladimir D. (2007). A Computational Differential Geometry Approach to Grid
Generation. Springer. p. 38. ISBN 978-3-540-34235-9.
15. Munkres, James R. (2000) Topology. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-181629-2.
16. Hanspeter Schaub; John L. Junkins (2003). "Rigid body kinematics" (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=qXvESNWrfpUC&pg=PA71). Analytical Mechanics of Space Systems.
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. p. 71. ISBN 1-56347-563-4.
Sources
Voitsekhovskii, M.I.; Ivanov, A.B. (2001) [1994], "Coordinates" (https://www.encyclopediaofm
ath.org/index.php?title=Coordinates), Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press
Woods, Frederick S. (1922). Higher Geometry (https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZULAA
AAYAAJ&pg=PA1). Ginn and Co. pp. 1ff.
Shigeyuki Morita; Teruko Nagase; Katsumi Nomizu (2001). Geometry of Differential Forms (
https://books.google.com/books?id=5N33Of2RzjsC&pg=PA12). AMS Bookstore. p. 12.
ISBN 0-8218-1045-6.
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External links
Hexagonal Coordinate Systems (http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/CVonline/LOCAL_COPIE
S/AV0405/MARTIN/Hex.pdf)
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