The physics convention. Spherical coordinates (r, θ, φ) as commonly used: (ISO 80000-2:2019): radial distance r (slant distance to origin), polar angle θ (theta) (angle with respect to positive polar axis), and azimuthal angle φ (phi) (angle of rotation from the initial meridian plane). This is the convention followed in this article. In mathematics, a spherical coordinate system is a coordinate s