Is there such thing as Cartesian, Euclidean, and Gaussian Coordinate System? In my mind, I have these concepts described in the following way:
Cartesian Coordinate System: a coordinate system that specifies each point uniquely in a plane like this; (x,y)
Euclidean Coordinate System: a coordinate system that specifies each point uniquely in a plane like this; (x,y,z)
Gaussian Coordinate System: a coordinate system that specifies each point uniquely in a plane like this; (r,theta)
I recently participated in a Math Competition and we were divided into three groups: Cartesians, Euclideans, and Gaussians; and now I am trying to figure out what do these three adjectives have in common besides of coming from really great mathematicians.
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The Cartesian co-ordinate system just means a system of rectangular co-ordinates, where the Euclidean notion of perpendicularity (zero Euclidean scalar product) implies that each co-ordinate axes are mutually perpendicular. A more general co-ordinate system would be the affine co-ordinate system; here, no notion of perpendicularity is assumed on the co-ordinate axes and armed only with the notion of parallelism it's more like a system of parallelogram co-ordinates, as opposed to rectangular ones in the Cartesian case. As for the circular/spherical/cylindrical co-ordinate systems, the best way to frame them would be in terms of projective co-ordinates (as opposed to the traditional "distance"/"angle" formulation).