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Spherical geometry or spherics (from Ancient Greek σφαιρικά) is the geometry of the two- dimensional surface of a sphere [ a ] or the n -dimensional surface of higher dimensional spheres. Long studied for its practical applications to astronomy, navigation, and geodesy, spherical geometry and the metrical tools of spherical trigonometry ...
Spherical trigonometry is the branch of spherical geometry that deals with the metrical relationships between the sides and angles of spherical triangles, traditionally expressed using trigonometric functions. On the sphere, geodesics are great circles. Spherical trigonometry is of great importance for calculations in astronomy, geodesy, and ...
This is the convention followed in this article. In mathematics, a spherical coordinate system is a coordinate system for three-dimensional space where the position of a given point in space is specified by three real numbers: the radial distance r along the radial line connecting the point to the fixed point of origin; the polar angle θ ...
The intersection of a sphere with an elliptic or hyperbolic cylinder whose axis passes through the sphere center. The locus of points whose sum or difference of great-circle distances from a pair of foci is a constant. Many theorems relating to planar conic sections also extend to spherical conics.
In spherical trigonometry, the law of cosines (also called the cosine rule for sides[ 1 ]) is a theorem relating the sides and angles of spherical triangles, analogous to the ordinary law of cosines from plane trigonometry. Spherical triangle solved by the law of cosines. Given a unit sphere, a "spherical triangle" on the surface of the sphere ...
Its arc length is the great-circle distance between the points (the intrinsic distance on a sphere), and is proportional to the measure of the central angle formed by the two points and the center of the sphere. A great circle is the largest circle that can be drawn on any given sphere. Any diameter of any great circle coincides with a diameter ...
Theodosius'. Spherics. The Spherics (Greek: τὰ σφαιρικά, tà sphairiká) is a three-volume treatise on spherical geometry written by the Hellenistic mathematician Theodosius of Bithynia in the 2nd or 1st century BC. Book I and the first half of Book II establish basic geometric constructions needed for spherical geometry using the ...
In geometry, a spherical cap or spherical dome is a portion of a sphere or of a ball cut off by a plane. It is also a spherical segment of one base, i.e., bounded by a single plane. If the plane passes through the center of the sphere (forming a great circle), so that the height of the cap is equal to the radius of the sphere, the spherical cap ...