SphericalPlot3D colorfunction discrepancy

[sjlukacs]

hello one and all,

trying to plot the atomic orbitals in Mathematica. my screen shot is here:

http://web.fscj.edu/Lukacs/images/sphericalplot3D.png

anyway, as you can see the SphericalPlot3D does not represent the colorfunction properly as compared to the ParametricPlot3D. I have copied the code below for reproduction purposes; it should be self contained.

so i am wondering what is the difference? lucas

color[\[CurlyTheta]_, \[CurlyPhi]_, infxn_] :=
RGBColor[(Sign[Re[infxn]] + 1)/2,
0, (-Sign[Re[infxn]] + 1)/2, .75];
1/4 Sqrt[5/Pi] (3 Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2 - 1)
SphericalPlot3D[%, {\[CurlyTheta], 0, Pi}, {\[CurlyPhi], 0, 2 Pi},
ColorFunction ->
Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi]},
color[\[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], %]],
ColorFunctionScaling -> False, ImageSize -> 150, Axes -> False,
Boxed -> False, PlotRange -> All]
ParametricPlot3D[
Evaluate[{Cos[\[CurlyPhi]] Sin[\[CurlyTheta]],
Sin[\[CurlyPhi]] Sin[\[CurlyTheta]],
Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]} %%], {\[CurlyTheta], 0, Pi}, {\[CurlyPhi], 0,
2 Pi}, ColorFunction ->
Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi]},
color[\[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], %%]],
ColorFunctionScaling -> False, ImageSize -> 150, Axes -> False,
Boxed -> False, PlotRange -> All]

[Kathy_Bautista]

Hi Lucas,

I've forwarded your question along to our technical support team so they can opine. I will email you as soon as I hear from them.

-Kathy

[Michael_Rogers]

Here's how I thought you were supposed to do it:

Code: Select all

fxn = 1/4 Sqrt[5/Pi] (3 Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2 - 1);
SphericalPlot3D[fxn, {\[CurlyTheta], 0, Pi}, {\[CurlyPhi], 0, 2 Pi},
ColorFunction -> Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], r}, Evaluate@color[\[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], fxn]],
ColorFunctionScaling -> False, ImageSize -> 150, Axes -> False,
Boxed -> False, PlotRange -> All]

See http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/ref/Function.html. Search for Evaluate under "Properties & Relations."

What I'm not sure about is why ParametricPlot3D works. Perhaps it evaluates the color function symbolically and then replaces variables with numbers, whereas SphericalPlot3D feeds numbers directly to the color function.

[Gerrard_Liddell]

The problem is the function in the option
ColorFunction -> Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], r},
Evaluate[color[\[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], fxn]]]

Either put it in by hand

SphericalPlot3D[
1/4 Sqrt[5/\[Pi]] (-1 + 3 Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2), {\[CurlyTheta],
0, \[Pi]}, {\[CurlyPhi], 0, 2 \[Pi]},
ColorFunction ->
Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], r},
RGBColor[1/2 (1 + Sign[-1 + 3 Re[Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2]]), 0,
1/2 (1 - Sign[-1 + 3 Re[Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2]]), 0.75`]],
ColorFunctionScaling -> False, ImageSize -> 150, Axes -> False,
Boxed -> False, PlotRange -> All]

Here is a way of getting it into the spherical plot in so it does work correctly:

Clear[fxn];

Hold[SphericalPlot3D[
fxn, {\[CurlyTheta], 0, Pi}, {\[CurlyPhi], 0, 2*Pi},
ColorFunction ->
Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], r},
Evaluate[color[\[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], fxn]]],
ColorFunctionScaling -> False,
ImageSize -> 150, Axes -> False, Boxed -> False,
PlotRange -> All]] /.
fxn -> (1/4)*Sqrt[5/Pi]*(3*Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2 - 1)


Here is a discussion of some of this:
If you construct the function and insert it via

With[{ fxn = 1/4 Sqrt[5/Pi] (3 Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2 - 1)},
Hold@SphericalPlot3D[
fxn, {\[CurlyTheta], 0, Pi}, {\[CurlyPhi], 0, 2 Pi},
ColorFunction ->
Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], r},
Evaluate@color[\[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], fxn]],
ColorFunctionScaling -> False, ImageSize -> 150, Axes -> False,
Boxed -> False, PlotRange -> All]
]

off course it does not work because of scoping replacing the dummy variables:

Hold[SphericalPlot3D[
1/4 Sqrt[5/\[Pi]] (-1 + 3 Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2), {\[CurlyTheta],
0, \[Pi]}, {\[CurlyPhi], 0, 2 \[Pi]},
ColorFunction ->
Function[{x$, y$, z$, \[CurlyTheta]$, \[CurlyPhi]$, r$},
Evaluate[
color[\[CurlyTheta]$, \[CurlyPhi]$,
1/4 Sqrt[5/\[Pi]] (-1 + 3 Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2)]]],
ColorFunctionScaling -> False, ImageSize -> 150, Axes -> False,
Boxed -> False, PlotRange -> All]]


The function
Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], r},
Evaluate@color[\[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], fxn]]
does evaluate to:

Function[{x, y, z, \[CurlyTheta], \[CurlyPhi], r},
RGBColor[1/2 (1 + Sign[-1 + 3 Re[Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2]]), 0,
1/2 (1 - Sign[-1 + 3 Re[Cos[\[CurlyTheta]]^2]]), 0.75]]

A trace of SphericalPlot reveals that it does correctly evaluate the option to
"ColorFunction" ->
"Function"[{"x", "y", "z", "\[CurlyTheta]", "\[CurlyPhi]", "r"},
"RGBColor"[
"Times"[1/2,
"Plus"[1,
"Sign"["Plus"[-1,
"Times"[3, "Re"["Power"["Cos"["\[CurlyTheta]"], 2]]]]]]], 0,
"Times"[1/2,
"Plus"[1,
"Times"[-1,
"Sign"["Plus"[-1,
"Times"[3, "Re"["Power"["Cos"["\[CurlyTheta]"], 2]]]]]]]],
0.75]]
(the strings are to allow analysis of the trace)

Hope this helps
Gerrard