Homework Help: Maths trigonometry

Posted by forest on Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 11:32am.

using basic trigonometry derive the following equations, which are used to convert cartesian to polar coordinates and vice versa. why is the cos(phi)in the x term?

x = R cos (phi) sin (lamda)
y = R sin (phi)

they are used in orthogonal projection of a spherical surface to a flat surface in the (x y) plane.

where (phi)=latitude
(lamda)=longitude

Maths trigonometry - Steve, Monday, October 17, 2011 at 10:53am
wikipedia has a nice article explaining this projection. Your example uses an origin of (0,0) for the projection, reducing the complexity of the equations considerably.

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