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For example, one sphere that is described in Cartesian coordinates with the equation x 2 + y 2 + z 2 = c 2 can be described in spherical coordinates by the simple equation r = c. (In this system—shown here in the mathematics convention—the sphere is adapted as a unit sphere, where the radius is set to unity and then can generally be ignored ...
The sphere has the smallest total mean curvature among all convex solids with a given surface area. The mean curvature is the average of the two principal curvatures, which is constant because the two principal curvatures are constant at all points of the sphere. The sphere has constant mean curvature.
The sum of the angles of a spherical triangle is not equal to 180°. A sphere is a curved surface, but locally the laws of the flat (planar) Euclidean geometry are good approximations. In a small triangle on the face of the earth, the sum of the angles is only slightly more than 180 degrees. A sphere with a spherical triangle on it.
This was a boon for problems possessing spherical symmetry, such as those of celestial mechanics originally studied by Laplace and Legendre. The prevalence of spherical harmonics already in physics set the stage for their later importance in the 20th century birth of quantum mechanics.
Many problems in the chemical and physical sciences can be related to packing problems where more than one size of sphere is available. Here there is a choice between separating the spheres into regions of close-packed equal spheres, or combining the multiple sizes of spheres into a compound or interstitial packing.
The solutions of the Schrödinger equation in polar coordinates in vacuum are thus labelled by three quantum numbers: discrete indices ℓ and m, and k varying continuously in [,): = (,) These solutions represent states of definite angular momentum, rather than of definite (linear) momentum, which are provided by plane waves ().
A diagram illustrating great-circle distance (drawn in red) between two points on a sphere, P and Q. Two antipodal points, u and v are also shown. The great-circle distance, orthodromic distance, or spherical distance is the distance between two points on a sphere, measured along the great-circle arc between them. This arc is the shortest path ...
The 3-sphere is the boundary of a -ball in four-dimensional space. The -sphere is the boundary of an -ball. Given a Cartesian coordinate system, the unit -sphere of radius can be defined as: