Deborah R. Fowler
Coordinate Systems
Updated on June 22 2013
Most of our work in 3D packages exists in a Cartesian coordinate system. Point locations described with ( x, y, z ).
In mathematics and other applications it is often handy to describe things in Polar coordinates. Point locations described by some distance from center, r and an angle from a reference direction, theta. In two dimension, (r,angle) and in three dimensions, ( r, azimuth angle (from x-axis), zenith angle (from z-axis) )
It is simple to convert from one coordinate system to the other. For example, in 2-D:
