Inmathematics andphysics, acoordinate singularity occurs when an apparentsingularity ordiscontinuity occurs in onecoordinate frame that can be removed by choosing a different frame.
An example is the apparent (longitudinal) singularity at the 90 degree latitude inspherical coordinates. An object moving due north (for example, along the line0 degrees longitude) on the surface of a sphere will suddenly experience an instantaneous change in longitude at thepole (i.e., jumping from longitude 0 to longitude 180 degrees). In fact, longitude is not uniquely defined at the poles. This discontinuity, however, is only apparent; it is an artifact of the coordinate system chosen, which is singular at the poles. A different coordinate system would eliminate the apparent discontinuity, e.g. by replacing the latitude/longitude representation with ann-vector representation.
English theoretical physicistStephen Hawking aptly summed this up, when once asking the question, "What lies north of theNorth Pole?".[1]