In the standard spherical coordinate system, is measured from the positive axis. The radial unit vector in spherical coordinates is
The coordinate forms of the elliptic paraboloid are given in the labelled parts below.
For the other surface, converts to
For , this is a two-sheeted hyperboloid, with two disconnected sheets starting at and opening along the axis. For , it is a one-sheet hyperboloid:
Its waist is the circle , . Both are surfaces of revolution about the axis and approach the cone far from the origin.
The figure shows and ; scaling all coordinates by gives the other magnitudes.
Figure 1.
Two-sheeted and one-sheet hyperboloids for positive and negative values of a
. Details.