Paraboloidal coordinates

Paraboloidal coordinates are three dimensional orthogonal coordinates that generalize two dimensional parabolic coordinates. They possess elliptic paraboloids as one coordinate surfaces. As such, they should be distinguished from parabolic cylindrical coordinates and parabolic rotational coordinates, both of which are also generalizations of two dimensional parabolic coordinates. The coordinate surfaces of the former are parabolic cylinders, and the coordinate surfaces of the latter are circular paraboloids. Differently from cylindrical and rotational parabolic coordinates, but similarly to the related ellipsoidal coordinates, the coordinate surfaces of the paraboloidal coordinate system are not produced by rotating or projecting any two dimensional orthogonal coordinate system.

Paraboloidal coordinates can be useful for solving certain partial differential equations. For instance, the Laplace equation and Helmholtz equation are both separable in paraboloidal coordinates. Hence, the coordinates can be used to solve these equations in geometries with paraboloidal symmetry, i. e. with boundary conditions specified on sections of paraboloids. The Helmholtz equation is Taking , the separated equations are

where and are the two separation constants. Similarly, the separated equations for the Laplace equation can be obtained by setting in the above. Each of the separated equations can be cast in the form of the Baer equation. Direct solution of the equations is difficult, however, in part because the separation constants and appear simultaneously in all three equations. Following the above approach, paraboloidal coordinates have been used to solve for the electric field surrounding a conducting paraboloid.