Spherical Coordinates
Spherical Coordinates : Also called: polar coordinates in space, geographical coordinates: A system of curvilinear coordinates in which the position of a point in space is designated by its distance r from the origin or pole, called the radius vector, the angle between the radius vector and a vertically-directed polar axis called the cone angle or colatitude, and the angle 8 between the plane of and a fixed meridian plane through the polar axis, called the polar angle or longitude. A constant- amplitude radius vector r confines a point to a sphere of radius r about the pole. The angles 0 and 8 serve to determine the position of the point on the sphere. The relations between the spherical coordinates and the rectangular Cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) are: x = r cos 8 sin fa y = r sin 6 sin fa z = r cos fa
