Vanilla Gorilla said:
What do I do with mixed terms (I.e., more than 1 basis vector involved), such as −2cosϕ∂∂rsinϕr∂∂ϕ in my calculation? Do I just discard those?
-2\cos \phi\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\frac{\sin \phi}{r}\frac{\partial}{\partial \phi}
We have no problem on the leftest
-2\cos \phi. Applying produclt rule of differentiaion,
\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\frac{\sin \phi}{r}\frac{\partial}{\partial \phi}
=[\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\frac{\sin \phi}{r}]\frac{\partial}{\partial \phi}+\frac{\sin \phi}{r}\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\frac{\partial}{\partial \phi}
=-\frac{\sin \phi}{r^2}\frac{\partial}{\partial \phi}+\frac{\sin \phi}{r}\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\frac{\partial}{\partial \phi}
As for change of order of operators for an example
\frac{d}{dx}xA=A+x\frac{d}{dx}A
As operator we may delete A as
\frac{d}{dx}x=1+x\frac{d}{dx}
1=\frac{d}{dx}x-x\frac{d}{dx}=[\frac{d}{dx},x]
In general
[\frac{d}{dx},f(x)]=f'(x)