Finding the Centroid of a Spherical Crescent

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The discussion focuses on finding the centroid of a spherical crescent, which is formed by the intersection of two spherical caps. The original poster has found the area of the crescent but is struggling with further calculations. They suggest that a calculus-based approach, particularly integrating over the spherical caps, might be necessary to determine the center of mass. The use of cylindrical coordinates with the centers of the spheres aligned on the z-axis is recommended for simplifying the integration process. Overall, the conversation emphasizes the need for a deeper understanding of the geometry and calculus involved in this specific case.
Dehstil
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Hello,

What I really want to do is deal with spherical "crescents" and incomplete annuli and see how well they are approximated by spherical caps, but here is my question:

How would you go about finding the centroid of a spherical crescent (one spherical cap minus the other) in the case when they are partially intersecting?

After some digging, I've managed to find the area but not much else for this case:
Page 10 on: ati.amd.com/developer/siggraph06/Oat-AmbientApetureLighting.pdf[/URL]
Page 2: [url]www.cse.ust.hk/~psander/docs/aperture.pdf[/url]
Page 12: [url]www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121601807/PDFSTART[/url]

I've attempted some geometric approaches but have not gotten very far. Perhaps knowing how to integrate over a spherical cap or the intersection of two spherical caps would be useful in a calculus-based "center of mass" approach.
 
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I'm pretty sure you want cylindrical coordinates with the center of both spheres on the z axis. Integral over theta is easy via symetry. You would have two remaining integrals over z and roh. You need to write equations for the surface of each sphere in terms of z and roh.
 
Here is a little puzzle from the book 100 Geometric Games by Pierre Berloquin. The side of a small square is one meter long and the side of a larger square one and a half meters long. One vertex of the large square is at the center of the small square. The side of the large square cuts two sides of the small square into one- third parts and two-thirds parts. What is the area where the squares overlap?

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