Curvilinear Coordinates
Lamé Coefficients
, the infinitesimal displacement vector can be written as,
Define the unit orthogonal basis vectors as,
which Lamé coefficients. Following the definition, we have
and the infinitesimal area vector in the direction of is,

,
It can also be expressed as,
Compare the two expressions, we obtain the components of the gradient,
Therefore,

For a vector field,
we have from the calculus that,
where the volume is enclosed by the surface
. Now we shrink
to an infinitesimal cubic volume, such that,
in both sides to get the divergence of the field,
Combine the gradient and the divergence to get Laplacian,

where the area is enclosed by the loop
. Similarly, we shrink
to an infinitesimal area in the direction of
, then the loop integral goes along the path as follows,

Cancel in both sides to get one component of the curl,
Switch the index by to get another two components,
It can be expressed as a more compact form,
where is the Levi-Civita symbol.

For Cartesian coordinates , it is obvious that,
Gradient
Divergence
Laplacian
Curl

For spherical coordinates
The Lamé coefficients are
Gradient
Divergence
Laplacian
Curl

For spherical coordinates
The Lamé coefficients are
Gradient
Divergence
Laplacian
Curl