POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.programming : spherical coordinate conventions? : spherical coordinate conventions? Server Time
20 Sep 2024 19:06:21 EDT (-0400)
  spherical coordinate conventions?  
From: George Pantazopoulos
Date: 23 Feb 2003 11:16:21
Message: <3e58f3d5$1@news.povray.org>
Hey all,

        There seems to be two different convention for labeling the angles
in sperical coordinates. What I have been taught in school, and have seen in
two different math textbooks is the following: (assuming a right-handed
coordinate system, with z axis pointing up, and the x axis going out of the
page, toward the viewer)

    theta:  angle rotated about the normal, lives in the xy plane, measured
from the x-axis
    phi: angle from the normal, measured from the z axis.


However, in some graphics literature and code, these seem to be reversed.
Will this always be the case? Is there a separate convention in the graphics
world?

Thanks,
George Pantazopoulos


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