OT - math question.

[Member 4148]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
say you had a point at the bottom of a sphere and then moved it to the right a random distance along the surface of the sphere. how would you calculate the height from the bottom?

if it is traveling in a straight line, it might as well be on the edge of a circle, as you are starting from the ultimate "south" position (nowhere to go but north)

you need your distance traveled - call that d
you need the radius of the sphere - call that r

now, set your graphin calculater into radian mode
then tell it to do the following equation

height from bottom = (sin((d/r) - pi/2) * r) + r

there are lots o variation on this equation

drop the +r to get the height above (+) or below (-) th center