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For $a>0$, the positive constant-$u$ surfaces in elliptic cylindrical coordinates satisfyThey are confocal elliptic cylinders with focal lines $x=\pm a,y=0$. For a generic fixed $v$, eliminating $u$ givesBecause $u\ge 0$, a fixed $v$ selects the half-branch with the signs of $x$ and $y$ fixed by $\cos v$ and $\sin v$. These are hyperbolic cylinders. The degenerate $u=0$ surface is $y=0$, $|x|\le a$, extended in $z$. At $v=0,\pi$ the cross-sections are the two exterior horizontal rays; at $v=\pi /2,3\pi /2$ they are vertical half-axes.

Differentiate the position vector to get the coordinate tangent vectorsTheir pairwise dot products vanish. Their squared lengths are $a^2({\sinh }^{2}u+{\sin }^{2}v)$, $a^2({\sinh }^{2}u+{\sin }^{2}v)$ and one. This proves orthogonality and gives the scale factors of orthogonal coordinates:The Riemannian metric is $d{s}^2=h^2(d{u}^2+d{v}^2)+d{z}^2$. Away from the focal lines, divide the coordinate tangent vectors by their lengths to obtain the local orthonormal unit vectors $e_u,e_v,e_z$. For physical vector field components $A_u,A_v,A_z$, the formulas for vector calculus in elliptic cylindrical coordinates areThe gradient of a scalar function has components $({\varphi }_u/h,{\varphi }_v/h,{\varphi }_z)$. Apply the divergence formula to this gradient; Laplace's equation becomesThe formulas apply where $h>0$; the focal lines require a limit or another coordinate chart.