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the point's direction from the pole relative to the direction of the polar axis, a ray drawn from the pole. The distance from the pole is called the radial coordinate, radial distance or simply radius, and the angle is called the angular coordinate, polar angle, or azimuth. [1] The pole is analogous to the origin in a Cartesian coordinate system.
It assigns three numbers (known as coordinates) to every point in Euclidean space: radial distance r, polar angle θ , and azimuthal angle φ . The symbol ρ ( rho ) is often used instead of r . In geometry , a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers , or coordinates , to uniquely determine the position of the points or ...
Let (x, y, z) be the standard Cartesian coordinates, and (ρ, θ, φ) the spherical coordinates, with θ the angle measured away from the +Z axis (as , see conventions in spherical coordinates). As φ has a range of 360° the same considerations as in polar (2 dimensional) coordinates apply whenever an arctangent of it is taken. θ has a range ...
In a spherical coordinate system, a colatitude is the complementary angle of a given latitude, i.e. the difference between a right angle and the latitude. [1] In geography, Southern latitudes are defined to be negative, and as a result the colatitude is a non-negative quantity, ranging from zero at the North pole to 180° at the South pole.
Even with these restrictions, if the polar angle (inclination) is 0° or 180°—elevation is −90° or +90°—then the azimuth angle is arbitrary; and if r is zero, both azimuth and polar angles are arbitrary. To define the coordinates as unique, the user can assert the convention that (in these cases) the arbitrary coordinates are set to zero.
The polar angle is denoted by [,]: it is the angle between the z-axis and the radial vector connecting the origin to the point in question. The azimuthal angle is denoted by φ ∈ [ 0 , 2 π ] {\displaystyle \varphi \in [0,2\pi ]} : it is the angle between the x -axis and the projection of the radial vector onto the xy -plane.
In green, the point with radial coordinate 3 and angular coordinate 60 degrees or (3, 60°). In blue, the point (4, 210°). The polar coordinate system is a two-dimensional coordinate system in which each point on a plane is determined by a distance from a reference point and an angle from a reference direction.
WGS84 angle to distance conversion: Image title: Length of one degree (black), minute (blue) and second (red) of latitude and longitude in metric (upper half) and imperial (lower half) units at a given latitude in WGS84 by CMG Lee. For comparison, dotted lines denote corresponding lengths assuming a spherical Earth.