Java 3D rendering of a Fibonacci sphere with 2000 points.
Java 3D rendering of a
Fibonacci sphere with 2000 points.
The Fibonacci Sphere Model draws n equidistant points on a sphere by distributing the points on a Fibonacci spiral. The sequence the produces this distribution separates advances the longitude by the golden angle. The algorithm is:
int n; // number of points
ga = pi*(3-sqrt(5)); // golden angle
for( int i=0; i<n; i++){
longitude = ga*i
latitude = asin(-1 + 2*i/n)
}
This model is designed to test OSP 3D drawing implementations in EJS. The sprial can be drawn using the Simple 3D implementation that run using only standard Java. The Java 3D implementation of the library provides superior hardware-acclerated drawing of geometric objects such as spheres, but requires that the Java 3D package. This package can be downloaded from the Java community website.
The Fibonacci Sphere Model was developed by Wolfgang Christian using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) version 4.3.7 authoring and modeling tool.
You can examine and modify a compiled EJS model if you run the model (double click on the model's jar file), right-click within a plot, and select "Open Ejs Model" from the pop-up menu. You must, of course, have EJS installed on your computer. Information about Ejs is available at: <http://www.um.es/fem/Ejs/> and in the OSP comPADRE collection <http://www.compadre.org/OSP/>.