# Cartesian to cylindrical coordinates (integration question)

1. Dec 7, 2012

### Miike012

There has been a few times when I switch from Cartesian to cylindrical coordinates to integrate I would get the wrong because I used the wrong substitution.
For instance I would use x = rcos(θ) and y = rsin(θ) where r and θ are variable when I was suppose to leave r as a constant.

Question: correct me if I am wrong, I should use x = rcosθ and y = rsinθ where r is variable if the cross section parallel to my region of integration are circles whose radius are not constant. For example: a cone.

And I would choose r to be the appropriate constant if the cross sections are circles with constant radius for example the surface x^2 + y^2 = 16 ... a cylinder.

Is there anything else I should know?

2. Dec 7, 2012

### LCKurtz

A surface requires two parameters while curve requires only 1. For example, to describe the unit circle $x^2+y^2=1$ and its interior you could use $x=r\cos\theta,\, y=r\sin\theta$ where $r$ varies from $0$ to $1$ and $\theta$ varies from $0$ to $2\pi$. If you just set $r=1$ then you just get the curve enclosing the area. If you set $\theta = \pi/4$ and let $r$ vary you get the $45^\circ$ line.