I'm trying to find the error in my logic here.
Let's say we are given the Laplace operator in polar coordinates:
$$ \frac{\partial^2}{\partial r^2} + \frac{1}{r}\frac{\partial}{\partial r} + \frac{1}{r^2}\frac{\partial}{\partial \theta^2} \tag{1} $$
and we're interested in transforming back to Cartesian coordinates. We could first make use of the usual coordinate transformation, namely
$$ u = r \sin(\theta), ~~v = r \cos(\theta), \tag{2}$$
to write the partial derivatives in polar coordinates as follows,
$$ \frac{\partial}{\partial r} = \sin(\theta) \frac{\partial}{\partial u} + \cos(\theta)\frac{\partial}{\partial v}, \tag{3}$$
$$ \frac{\partial}{\partial \theta} = r \cos(\theta) \frac{\partial}{\partial u} - r \sin(\theta)\frac{\partial}{\partial v}. \tag{4}$$
I think we should then rewrite all $\theta$ and $r$ in terms of $u$ and $v$, making use of $r^2 = u^2 + v^2$, so that in particular
$$ \sin(\theta) = \frac{u}{\sqrt{u^2 + v^2}}, \tag{5}$$ $$ \cos(\theta) = \frac{v}{\sqrt{u^2 + v^2}} \tag{6}.$$
With this, (3) and (4) then become
$$ \frac{\partial}{\partial r} = \frac{u}{\sqrt{u^2 + v^2}} \frac{\partial}{\partial u} + \frac{v}{\sqrt{u^2 + v^2}} \frac{\partial}{\partial v}, \tag{3*}$$
$$ \frac{\partial}{\partial \theta} = v \frac{\partial}{\partial u} - u \frac{\partial}{\partial v}. \tag{4*}$$
Our next task is to then compute $\frac{\partial^2}{\partial r^2}$ and $\frac{\partial^2}{\partial \theta^2}$, which we can carefully do by multiplying the right-hand sides of (3*) and (4*), keeping in mind that the operators will act on the coefficients.
However, executing this and adding the terms together yields nothing that looks remotely near the known form, namely $$\frac{\partial^2}{\partial u^2} + \frac{\partial^2}{\partial v^2}.$$ So I'm wondering, what am I missing here?
In addition to this particular example, I'm interested in any general information you have about transforming partial derivatives from polar to Cartesian coordinates.
Here is my proof: $$ \frac{\partial}{\partial x}=\frac{\partial}{\partial r} \frac{\partial r}{\partial x} +\frac{\partial}{\partial \theta}\frac{\partial \theta}{\partial x}$$ so by applying the product rule
$$ \frac{\partial^2}{\partial x^2}=\frac{\partial}{\partial x}\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial r} \frac{\partial r}{\partial x}+\frac{\partial}{\partial \theta}\frac{\partial \theta}{\partial x}\right)= \frac{\partial^2}{\partial r^2}\left(\frac{\partial r}{\partial x}\right)^2+ \frac{\partial}{\partial r}\frac{\partial^2 r}{\partial x^2} + \frac{\partial^2}{\partial \theta^2}\left(\frac{\partial \theta}{\partial x}\right)^2+ \frac{\partial}{\partial \theta}\frac{\partial^2 \theta}{\partial x^2}$$ $$ +\frac{\partial^2 }{\partial r \partial \theta}\frac{\partial r}{\partial x} \frac{\partial \theta}{\partial x}$$
You get the same relation with $y$. Now you just have to calculate the derivatives of $r,\theta$ with respect to $x,y$. You have $$ r=\sqrt{x^2+y^2},\ \theta=\arctan \frac{y}{x}$$.
What follows is a simple calculus exercise on derivatives. You just need to prove that $$\left(\frac{\partial r}{\partial x}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\partial r}{\partial y}\right)^2=1, $$ etc.(the relations you need so that when you sum $\frac{\partial^2}{\partial x^2}$ and $\frac{\partial^2}{\partial y^2}$ you'll get the polar form of the laplacian).
Going on the lines you started, you shouldn't change $\sin \theta,\cos \theta$ in terms of $x,y$. Just calculate the next derivative with respect to $r,\theta$, using appropriately the formula of the partial derivative of composition of functions.