Spherical harmonic

The spherical harmonics are an orthogonal set of solutions to Laplace's equation represented in a system of spherical coordinates. The solutions are generally expressed in terms of trigonometric functions and Legendre polynomials.

Spherical harmonics are important in many theoretical and practical applications, particularly the computation of atomic electron configurations, and the approximation of the Earth's gravitational field and the geoid.

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External links

http://solid_earth.ou.edu/notes/harmonic/harmonic.html