Random Points on a Sphere

Re:Random Points on a Sphere by fsloth on Monday April 27, 2015 @02:07AM (#9444580)

Are you sure? If z is distributed over the surface of the sphere there is far less surface at the extremums -1 and 1. Doesn't z being uniform in the range (-1,1) lead to points being actually more densly concentrated near the poles? Or did I misunderstand what you meant?

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Re:Random Points on a Sphere by kasdkashdkas on Monday April 27, 2015 @02:37AM (#9444658)

Near the poles the surface becomes very flat and therefore there is as much surface area in a slice of constant height than anywhere else. Archimedes was a clever fella :-)

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Re:Random Points on a Sphere by fsloth on Monday April 27, 2015 @04:20AM (#9444961)

Oh, I was totally confused, of course the numbers in every dimension are evenly distributed, silly me - I was thinking of great circles. Thanks :)

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