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Re: Range of "Spherical Coordinates" in SPHER_HARM [message #62912 is a reply to message #62822]

Mon, 13 October 2008 00:22

Karlo Janos
Messages: 31
Registered: July 2008

Member

> What contradiction do you see within those statements?

Well, I see much more clearly now.
I mixed up azimuth and elevation. Thus I thought azimuth is the angle
which defines the height above the x-y-plane. And hence I saw a
contradiction which is actually not there.

>> ... In my opinion/definition theta is the azimuthal angle (and not
>> 'colatitudinal' as stated in the help document) and phi is the polar
>> angle (and not 'longitudinal').
>
> That may be your opinion; but the definitions of theta and phi are
> fundamentally arbitrary. There are conventions, of course, but
> different conventions are followed by different groups.
>
> I've got about 100 advanced math and physics books in my library. I
> just did a quick survey of them, and 9 of them mention spherical
> coordinates or spherical harmonics in the index. Here's my results:
>
> Theta is azimuthal, phi is polar:
> =================================
> "Mathematical Analysis" - Apostol
>
> Theta is polar, phi is azimuthal:
> =================================
> "Special Functions and their applications" - Lebedev
> [...]

Of course I know these different conventions. And I always use the
latter one...

To come to a conclusion here: Thanks for helping me to find
clarification! :-)

Karlo

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[Message index]

		Re: Range of "Spherical Coordinates" in SPHER_HARM By: jameskuyper on Sun, 12 October 2008 11:45
		Re: Range of "Spherical Coordinates" in SPHER_HARM By: Karlo Janos on Sun, 12 October 2008 04:41
		Re: Range of "Spherical Coordinates" in SPHER_HARM By: Kenneth P. Bowman on Thu, 09 October 2008 06:22
		Re: Range of "Spherical Coordinates" in SPHER_HARM By: jameskuyper on Thu, 09 October 2008 10:18
		Re: Range of "Spherical Coordinates" in SPHER_HARM By: Karlo Janos on Mon, 13 October 2008 00:22

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