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In mathematics, a spherical coordinate system specifies a given point in three-dimensional space by using a distance and two angles as its three coordinates. These are the radial distance r along the line connecting the point to a fixed point called the origin; the polar angle θ between this radial line and a given polar axis; [a] and
A diagram illustrating great-circle distance (drawn in red) between two points on a sphere, P and Q. Two antipodal points, u and v are also shown. The great-circle distance, orthodromic distance, or spherical distance is the distance between two points on a sphere, measured along the great-circle arc between them. This arc is the shortest path ...
Radial distance, typically denoted r or ρ , is the distance from the origin to a point along the radial dimension in a: Polar coordinate system; Spherical coordinate ...
The spherical coordinate system is commonly used in physics. 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 is often used instead of r.
This is more than an analogy; spherical and plane geometry and others can all be unified under the umbrella of geometry built from distance measurement, where "lines" are defined to mean shortest paths (geodesics). Many statements about the geometry of points and such "lines" are equally true in all those geometries provided lines are defined ...
d is the distance between the two points along a great circle of the sphere (see spherical distance), r is the radius of the sphere. The haversine formula allows the haversine of θ to be computed directly from the latitude (represented by φ) and longitude (represented by λ) of the two points:
In green, the point with radial coordinate 3 and angular coordinate 60 degrees or (3, 60°). In blue, the point (4, 210°). In mathematics, the polar coordinate system specifies a given point in a plane by using a distance and an angle as its two coordinates. These are the point's distance from a reference point called the pole, and
This article uses the standard notation ISO 80000-2, which supersedes ISO 31-11, for spherical coordinates (other sources may reverse the definitions of θ and φ): . 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.