Usually people derive nabla coordinates in spherical system using orthogonal basis or another tricks, I just want to apply general rule for $\left(\begin{array}[c] 00 \\ 1\end{array}\right)$ tensor. As I understand, if \begin{equation} d f = \dfrac{\partial f}{\partial x}dx+\dfrac{\partial f}{\partial y}dy+\dfrac{\partial f}{\partial z}dz \end{equation} Then in cartesian coordinates \begin{equation} \nabla_i = \dfrac{\partial f}{\partial x_i} \end{equation} for $\left(\begin{array} 00 \\ 1\end{array}\right)$ tensor coordinates after changing atlas from $X\rightarrow Y$: \begin{equation} \begin{array}[c] xx = r\sin(\theta)\cos(\varphi)\\ y =r\sin(\theta)\sin(\varphi)\\ z=r\cos(\theta) \end{array}\Rightarrow \begin{array}[c] rr = \sqrt{x^2+y^2+z^2}\\ \theta = arctan(\sqrt{x^2+y^2}/z)\\ \varphi = arctan(y/x) \end{array} \end{equation} have to transform like: \begin{equation} \nabla_k =\nabla_i\dfrac{\partial x^i}{\partial y^k} \end{equation} So \begin{equation} \nabla_r = \dfrac{\partial f}{\partial x_i}\dfrac{\partial x^i}{\partial r}=\dfrac{\partial f}{\partial x}\dfrac{\partial x}{\partial r}+\dfrac{\partial f}{\partial y}\dfrac{\partial y}{\partial r}+\dfrac{\partial f}{\partial z}\dfrac{\partial z}{\partial r}= \end{equation} \begin{equation} =\dfrac{\partial f}{\partial x}\sin(\theta)\cos(\varphi)+\dfrac{\partial f}{\partial y}\sin(\theta)\sin(\varphi)+\dfrac{\partial f}{\partial z}\cos(\theta) \end{equation} but wikipedia says: \begin{equation} \nabla_r = \dfrac{\partial }{\partial r} \end{equation}
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I don't see a contradiction between your formula and what Wikipedia says. – Kurt G. Jan 13 '24 at 20:17
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but I am not getting $\dfrac{\partial}{\partial r}$ from tensor transformation rule – Aslan Monahov Jan 13 '24 at 20:25
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The notation $\nabla_r$ is gratuitous because it is $\frac{\partial}{\partial r},.$ I do not know what exactly you mean by tensor transformation rule. I have verified many times that all we need is just the chain rule and that is what you actually did also. – Kurt G. Jan 13 '24 at 20:28
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by transformation law I mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor#:~:text=.-,The%20transformation%20law,-for%20an%20order – Aslan Monahov Jan 13 '24 at 20:36
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The chain rule states that $\partial/\partial{r}=\partial{x}/\partial{r}\partial/\partial{x}+\partial{y}/\partial{r}\partial/\partial{y}+\partial{z}/\partial{r}\partial/\partial{z}$. – DeVoyd Jan 13 '24 at 23:51
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ok but for $\nabla_{\theta}=\dfrac{1}{r}\dfrac{\partial}{\partial \theta}$ where does $\dfrac{1}{r}$ come from? – Aslan Monahov Jan 14 '24 at 05:48
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See this post. – Kurt G. Jan 14 '24 at 07:08