Dorky Poll: Coordination

Posted by Chad Orzel on January 6, 2010
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Today’s lecture in intro mechanics is a whirlwind survey of vectors. While I struggle to clear my head enough to be able to teach this stuff, here’s a Dorky Poll to pass the time:


This is a strictly classical subject, so please choose only one.

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Comments

  1. #1 Jamie
    January 6, 2010

    Doesn’t this depend on what you’re doing? Whether Cartesian vs. Polar variants are the more appropriate depends on the problem you’re trying to solve if my extremely rusty calculus isn’t leading me astray.

  2. #2 radha
    January 6, 2010

    Personally, I prefer ECEF or ENU, depending on the problem.

  3. #3 Brett
    January 6, 2010

    Parabolic, for the Stark effect.

  4. #4 marciepooh
    January 6, 2010

    I usually don’t have to worry about a radius, but spherical is the only way to go – stereonets rule!

    In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a structural geologist and a fondness for such things is an occupational hazard.

  5. #5 Katherine
    January 6, 2010

    Though usually I work in 2 dimensions and let the contractor sort out the 3rd (as there are standards that govern it they can’t really do it wrong).

  6. #6 adagger
    January 6, 2010

    You missed an option: I object to the poll, because I have the sense to pick a coordinate system appropriate to the situation :-P

  7. #7 Arthur David
    January 7, 2010

    Eddington-Finkelstein-coordinates of course!

  8. #8 CCPhysicist
    January 7, 2010

    You definitely want to use spherical coordinates when doing projectile motion with a = -g j-hat …

  9. #9 csrster
    January 8, 2010

    I object to this poll because the radial coordinate in cylindrical geometry is _s_, not r.