We integrate over regions in spherical coordinates.
An ordered triple consisting of a radius, an angle, and a height can be graphed as
meaning:
Coordinates of this type are called spherical coordinates.
Triple integrals in spherical coordinates
If you want to evaluate this integral you have to change to a region defined in -coordinates, and change to some combination of leaving you with some iterated integral: Now consider representing a region in spherical coordinates and let’s express in terms of , , and . To do this, consider the diagram below:
Recalling that the determinate of a matrix gives the volume of a
parallelepiped, we could also deduce the correct form for by setting
and computing:
We may now state at theorem: