Math::Trig defines many trigonometric functions not defined
by the core Perl which defines only the sin() and cos().
The constant pi is also defined as are a few convenience
functions for angle conversions.
TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS
The tangent
tan
The cofunctions of the sine, cosine, and tangent (cosec/csc
and cotan/cot are aliases)
csc, cosec, sec, sec, cot, cotan
The arcus (also known as the inverse) functions of the sine,
cosine, and tangent
asin, acos, atan
The principal value of the arc tangent of y/x
atan2(y, x)
The arcus cofunctions of the sine, cosine, and tangent
(acosec/acsc and acotan/acot are aliases)
acsc, acosec, asec, acot, acotan
The hyperbolic sine, cosine, and tangent
sinh, cosh, tanh
The cofunctions of the hyperbolic sine, cosine, and tangent
(cosech/csch and cotanh/coth are aliases)
csch, cosech, sech, coth, cotanh
The arcus (also known as the inverse) functions of the
hyperbolic sine, cosine, and tangent
asinh, acosh, atanh
The arcus cofunctions of the hyperbolic sine, cosine, and
tangent (acsch/acosech and acoth/acotanh are aliases)
acsch, acosech, asech, acoth, acotanh
The trigonometric constant pi is also defined.
$pi2 = 2 * pi;
ERRORSDUETODIVISIONBYZERO
The following functions
acoth
acsc
acsch
asec
asech
atanh
cot
coth
csc
csch
sec
sech
tan
tanh
cannot be computed for all arguments because that would mean
dividing by zero or taking logarithm of zero. These
situations cause fatal runtime errors looking like this
cot(0): Division by zero.
(Because in the definition of cot(0), the divisor sin(0) is 0)
Died at ...
or
atanh(-1): Logarithm of zero.
Died at...
For the csc, cot, asec, acsc, acot, csch, coth, asech,
acsch, the argument cannot be 0 (zero). For the atanh,
acoth, the argument cannot be 1 (one). For the atanh,
acoth, the argument cannot be -1 (minus one). For the tan,
sec, tanh, sech, the argument cannot be pi/2 + k * pi, where
k is any integer.
SIMPLE(REAL)ARGUMENTS,COMPLEXRESULTS
Please note that some of the trigonometric functions can
break out from the realaxis into the complexplane. For
example asin(2) has no definition for plain real numbers but
it has definition for complex numbers.
In Perl terms this means that supplying the usual Perl
numbers (also known as scalars, please see the perldata
manpage) as input for the trigonometric functions might
produce as output results that no more are simple real
numbers: instead they are complex numbers.
The Math::Trig handles this by using the Math::Complex
package which knows how to handle complex numbers, please
see the Math::Complex manpage for more information. In
practice you need not to worry about getting complex numbers
as results because the Math::Complex takes care of details
like for example how to display complex numbers. For
example:
print asin(2), "\n";
should produce something like this (take or leave few last decimals):
1.5707963267949-1.31695789692482i
That is, a complex number with the real part of
approximately 1.571 and the imaginary part of approximately
-1.317.
PLANE ANGLE CONVERSIONS
(Plane, 2-dimensional) angles may be converted with the
following functions.
$radians = deg2rad($degrees);
$radians = grad2rad($gradians);
$degrees = rad2deg($radians);
$degrees = grad2deg($gradians);
$gradians = deg2grad($degrees);
$gradians = rad2grad($radians);
The full circle is 2 pi radians or 360 degrees or 400
gradians.
RADIAL COORDINATE CONVERSIONS
Radialcoordinatesystems are the spherical and the
cylindrical systems, explained shortly in more detail.
You can import radial coordinate conversion functions by
using the :radial tag:
use Math::Trig ':radial';
($rho, $theta, $z) = cartesian_to_cylindrical($x, $y, $z);
($rho, $theta, $phi) = cartesian_to_spherical($x, $y, $z);
($x, $y, $z) = cylindrical_to_cartesian($rho, $theta, $z);
($rho_s, $theta, $phi) = cylindrical_to_spherical($rho_c, $theta, $z);
($x, $y, $z) = spherical_to_cartesian($rho, $theta, $phi);
($rho_c, $theta, $z) = spherical_to_cylindrical($rho_s, $theta, $phi);
Allanglesareinradians.
COORDINATESYSTEMSCartesian coordinates are the usual rectangular (x, y,
z)-coordinates.
Spherical coordinates, (rho, theta, pi), are three-
dimensional coordinates which define a point in three-
dimensional space. They are based on a sphere surface. The
radius of the sphere is rho, also known as the radial
coordinate. The angle in the xy-plane (around the z-axis)
is theta, also known as the azimuthal coordinate. The angle
from the z-axis is phi, also known as the polar coordinate.
The `North Pole' is therefore 0, 0, rho, and the `Bay of
Guinea' (think of the missing big chunk of Africa) 0, pi/2,
rho. In geographical terms phi is latitude (northward
positive, southward negative) and theta is longitude
(eastward positive, westward negative).
BEWARE: some texts define theta and phi the other way round,
some texts define the phi to start from the horizontal
plane, some texts use r in place of rho.
Cylindrical coordinates, (rho, theta, z), are three-
dimensional coordinates which define a point in three-
dimensional space. They are based on a cylinder surface.
The radius of the cylinder is rho, also known as the radial
coordinate. The angle in the xy-plane (around the z-axis)
is theta, also known as the azimuthal coordinate. The third
coordinate is the z, pointing up from the theta-plane.
3-DANGLECONVERSIONS
Conversions to and from spherical and cylindrical
coordinates are available. Please notice that the
conversions are not necessarily reversible because of the
equalities like pi angles being equal to -pi angles.
cartesian_to_cylindrical
($rho, $theta, $z) = cartesian_to_cylindrical($x, $y, $z);
cartesian_to_spherical
($rho, $theta, $phi) = cartesian_to_spherical($x, $y, $z);
cylindrical_to_cartesian
($x, $y, $z) = cylindrical_to_cartesian($rho, $theta, $z);
cylindrical_to_spherical
($rho_s, $theta, $phi) = cylindrical_to_spherical($rho_c, $theta, $z);
Notice that when $z is not 0 $rho_s is not equal to
$rho_c.
spherical_to_cartesian
($x, $y, $z) = spherical_to_cartesian($rho, $theta, $phi);
spherical_to_cylindrical
($rho_c, $theta, $z) = spherical_to_cylindrical($rho_s, $theta, $phi);
Notice that when $z is not 0 $rho_c is not equal to
$rho_s.
GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCES
You can compute spherical distances, called greatcircledistances, by importing the great_circle_distance function:
use Math::Trig 'great_circle_distance'
$distance = great_circle_distance($theta0, $phi0, $theta1, $phi1, [, $rho]);
The greatcircledistance is the shortest distance between
two points on a sphere. The distance is in $rho units. The
$rho is optional, it defaults to 1 (the unit sphere),
therefore the distance defaults to radians.
If you think geographically the theta are longitudes: zero
at the Greenwhich meridian, eastward positive, westward
negative--and the phi are latitudes: zero at the North Pole,
northward positive, southward negative. NOTE: this formula
thinks in mathematics, not geographically: the phi zero is
at the North Pole, not at the Equator on the west coast of
Africa (Bay of Guinea). You need to subtract your
geographical coordinates from pi/2 (also known as 90
degrees).
$distance = great_circle_distance($lon0, pi/2 - $lat0,
$lon1, pi/2 - $lat1, $rho);
EXAMPLES
To calculate the distance between London (51.3N 0.5W) and
Tokyo (35.7N 139.8E) in kilometers:
use Math::Trig qw(great_circle_distance deg2rad);
# Notice the 90 - latitude: phi zero is at the North Pole.
@L = (deg2rad(-0.5), deg2rad(90 - 51.3));
@T = (deg2rad(139.8),deg2rad(90 - 35.7));
$km = great_circle_distance(@L, @T, 6378);
The answer may be off by few percentages because of the
irregular (slightly aspherical) form of the Earth.
BUGS
Saying use Math::Trig; exports many mathematical routines in
the caller environment and even overrides some (sin, cos).
This is construed as a feature by the Authors, actually...
;-)
The code is not optimized for speed, especially because we
use Math::Complex and thus go quite near complex numbers
while doing the computations even when the arguments are
not. This, however, cannot be completely avoided if we want
things like asin(2) to give an answer instead of giving a
fatal runtime error.
AUTHORS
Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi> and Raphael Manfredi
<Raphael_Manfredi@grenoble.hp.com>.