Re: [boost] Computing Random Points on Sphere

From: Lewis Hyatt (lhyatt_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-06-05 17:00:48

> The posted trig method is correct, it chooses a horizontal cutting plane 
> uniformly. You can show that the surface area of a sphere contained 
> between two z-coordinates only depends on the difference between the two 
> coordinates, not their location, so this generates the correct distribution.
> 
> However, the "naive" method is incorrect, the resulting points are not 
> uniformly distributed over the sphere. The correct version of the 
> "naive" method is given here: 
> http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SpherePointPicking.html
> 

I take it back... this method does work OK after all. I believe those 
listed at the above link are superior, though.

-Lewis