In article <3e58f3d5$1@news.povray.org>,
 "George Pantazopoulos" <the### [at] attbicom*KILLSPAM*> wrote:

>         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?

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SphericalCoordinates.html

"Unfortunately, the convention in which the symbols [theta] and [phi] 
are reversed is frequently used, especially in physics, leading to 
unnecessary confusion."

Since computer graphics is closely linked to both physics and 
mathmatics, you will probably see a bit of inconsistency.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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