use Math::Trig;
$x = tan(0.9);
$y = acos(3.7);
$z = asin(2.4);
$halfpi = pi/2;
$rad = deg2rad(120);
# Import constants pi2, pip2, pip4 (2*pi, pi/2, pi/4).
use Math::Trig ':pi';
# Import the conversions between cartesian/spherical/cylindrical.
use Math::Trig ':radial';
# Import the great circle formulas.
use Math::Trig ':great_circle';
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). Note that atan2(0, 0) is not well-defined.
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 area (also known as the inverse) functions of the hyperbolic sine, cosine, and tangent
asinh, acosh, atanh
The area cofunctions of the hyperbolic sine, cosine, and tangent (acsch/acosech and acoth/acotanh are aliases)
acsch, acosech, asech, acoth, acotanh
The trigonometric constant pi and some of handy multiples of it are also defined.
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.
Note that atan2(0, 0) is not well-defined.
In Perl terms this means that supplying the usual Perl numbers (also known as scalars, please see perldata) 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 Math::Complex 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".
$radians = deg2rad($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. The result is by default wrapped to be inside the [0, {2pi,360,400}[ circle. If you don't want this, supply a true second argument:
$zillions_of_radians = deg2rad($zillions_of_degrees, 1);
$negative_degrees = rad2deg($negative_radians, 1);
You can also do the wrapping explicitly by rad2rad(), deg2deg(), and grad2grad().
$radians_wrapped_by_2pi = rad2rad($radians);
$degrees_wrapped_by_360 = deg2deg($degrees);
$gradians_wrapped_by_400 = grad2grad($gradians);
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, $phi);
Spherical coordinates, (rho, theta, pi), are three-dimensional coordinates which define a point in three-dimensional space. They are based on a sphere surface. The radius of the sphere is rho, also known as the radial coordinate. The angle in the xy-plane (around the z-axis) is theta, also known as the azimuthal coordinate. The angle from the z-axis is phi, also known as the polar coordinate. The North Pole is therefore 0, 0, rho, and the Gulf of Guinea (think of the missing big chunk of Africa) 0, pi/2, rho. In geographical terms phi is latitude (northward positive, southward negative) and theta is longitude (eastward positive, westward negative).
BEWARE: some texts define theta and phi the other way round, some texts define the phi to start from the horizontal plane, some texts use r in place of rho.
Cylindrical coordinates, (rho, theta, z), are three-dimensional coordinates which define a point in three-dimensional space. They are based on a cylinder surface. The radius of the cylinder is rho, also known as the radial coordinate. The angle in the xy-plane (around the z-axis) is theta, also known as the azimuthal coordinate. The third coordinate is the z, pointing up from the theta-plane.
($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);
Notice that when $z is not 0 $rho_s is not equal to $rho_c.
($x, $y, $z) = spherical_to_cartesian($rho, $theta, $phi);
($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.
use Math::Trig 'great_circle_distance'; $distance = great_circle_distance($theta0, $phi0, $theta1, $phi1, [, $rho]);
The great circle distance 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);
use Math::Trig 'great_circle_direction'; $direction = great_circle_direction($theta0, $phi0, $theta1, $phi1);
use Math::Trig 'great_circle_bearing'; $direction = great_circle_bearing($theta0, $phi0, $theta1, $phi1);
The result of great_circle_direction is in radians, zero indicating straight north, pi or -pi straight south, pi/2 straight west, and -pi/2 straight east.
use Math::Trig 'great_circle_destination';
# $diro is the original direction,
# for example from great_circle_bearing().
# $distance is the angular distance in radians,
# for example from great_circle_distance().
# $thetad and $phid are the destination coordinates,
# $dird is the final direction at the destination.
($thetad, $phid, $dird) =
great_circle_destination($theta, $phi, $diro, $distance);
or the midpoint if you know the end points:
use Math::Trig 'great_circle_midpoint';
($thetam, $phim) =
great_circle_midpoint($theta0, $phi0, $theta1, $phi1);
The great_circle_midpoint() is just a special case of
use Math::Trig 'great_circle_waypoint';
($thetai, $phii) =
great_circle_waypoint($theta0, $phi0, $theta1, $phi1, $way);
Where the $way is a value from zero ($theta0, $phi0) to one ($theta1, $phi1). Note that antipodal points (where their distance is pi radians) do not have waypoints between them (they would have an an ``equator'' between them), and therefore "undef" is returned for antipodal points. If the points are the same and the distance therefore zero and all waypoints therefore identical, the first point (either point) is returned.
The thetas, phis, direction, and distance in the above are all in radians.
You can import all the great circle formulas by
use Math::Trig ':great_circle';
Notice that the resulting directions might be somewhat surprising if you are looking at a flat worldmap: in such map projections the great circles quite often do not look like the shortest routes --- but for example the shortest possible routes from Europe or North America to Asia do often cross the polar regions. (The common Mercator projection does not show great circles as straight lines: straight lines in the Mercator projection are lines of constant bearing.)
use Math::Trig qw(great_circle_distance deg2rad);
# Notice the 90 - latitude: phi zero is at the North Pole.
sub NESW { deg2rad($_[0]), deg2rad(90 - $_[1]) }
my @L = NESW( -0.5, 51.3);
my @T = NESW(139.8, 35.7);
my $km = great_circle_distance(@L, @T, 6378); # About 9600 km.
The direction you would have to go from London to Tokyo (in radians, straight north being zero, straight east being pi/2).
use Math::Trig qw(great_circle_direction);
my $rad = great_circle_direction(@L, @T); # About 0.547 or 0.174 pi.
The midpoint between London and Tokyo being
use Math::Trig qw(great_circle_midpoint);
my @M = great_circle_midpoint(@L, @T);
or about 69 N 89 E, in the frozen wastes of Siberia.
NOTE: you cannot get from A to B like this:
Dist = great_circle_distance(A, B) Dir = great_circle_direction(A, B) C = great_circle_destination(A, Dist, Dir)
and expect C to be B, because the bearing constantly changes when going from A to B (except in some special case like the meridians or the circles of latitudes) and in great_circle_destination() one gives a constant bearing to follow.
print cos(1e-6)**2+sin(1e-6)**2 - 1,"\n"; printf "%.20f", cos(1e-6)**2+sin(1e-6)**2,"\n";
which will print something like this
-1.11022302462516e-16 0.99999999999999988898
even though the expected results are of course exactly zero and one. The formulas used to compute asin() and acos() are quite sensitive to this, and therefore they might accidentally slip into the complex plane even when they should not. To counter this there are two interfaces that are guaranteed to return a real-valued output.
use Math::Trig qw(asin_real);
$real_angle = asin_real($input_sin);
Return a real-valued arcus sine if the input is between [-1, 1], inclusive the endpoints. For inputs greater than one, pi/2 is returned. For inputs less than minus one, -pi/2 is returned.
use Math::Trig qw(acos_real);
$real_angle = acos_real($input_cos);
Return a real-valued arcus cosine if the input is between [-1, 1], inclusive the endpoints. For inputs greater than one, zero is returned. For inputs less than minus one, pi is returned.
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.
Do not attempt navigation using these formulas.