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SphericalPlot3D in Version 6.0

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg79350] SphericalPlot3D in Version 6.0
• From: Januk <ggroup at sarj.ca>
• Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:10:06 -0400 (EDT)

Hi all,

Does SphericalPlot3D offer anything over ParametricPlot3D in terms of
its handling of functions?  As far as I can tell, the following two
lines give me pretty well exactly the same result, except that
SphericalPlot3D line takes nearly twice as long as ParametricPlot3D.

f[th_, ph_] := Cos[th] Sin[ph]  (* Note this is an extremely simple
example of what I really want *)

Timing[
  SphericalPlot3D[f[th, ph], {ph, 0, \[Pi]}, {th, 0, 2 \[Pi]},
   PlotRange -> All, ImageSize -> 600]
  ];

Timing[
 ParametricPlot3D[
   f[th, ph] {Cos[th] Sin[ph], Sin[th] Sin[ph], Cos[ph]}, {ph,
    0, \[Pi]}, {th, 0, 2 \[Pi]}, PlotRange -> All, ImageSize -> 600]
 ]

Other than the shorter syntax, is there any advantage to using
SphericalPlot3D?

Thanks,
Januk

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: SphericalPlot3D in Version 6.0
    • From: Brett Champion <brettc@wolfram.com>