Problems with a particular symmetry, such as cylindrical or spherical, are best attacked using coordinate systems that take full advantage of that symmetry. For example, the Schrödinger equation for t...Problems with a particular symmetry, such as cylindrical or spherical, are best attacked using coordinate systems that take full advantage of that symmetry. For example, the Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom is best solved using spherical polar coordinates. For this and other differential equation problems, then, we need to find the expressions for differential operators in terms of the appropriate coordinates.
