Module 4

Stereographic projection:
concept and application

Lecture 4
Stereographic projection:
concept and application

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Keywords:definition,properties,poles&planes,great&smallcircle,Wulffnet,measurementof
theanglebetweentwopoles,rotationaboutanyaxis,standardprojectionofcubiccrystal

Introduction
Stereographic projection provides a means of representing different planes and directions of a
crystal in 2 dimensions. It allows measurement of angles between planes and directions. We are
morefamiliarwithengineeringprojectionwhichisadistancetrueprojection.Thisprovidesasketch
of a 3dimensional object as it is viewed from three different angles. It consists of a plan, an
elevationandasideview.Thedistancebetweentwopointsontheobjectislinearlyrelatedtothat
in the projection. As against this stereographic projection is an angle true projection. The angular
relationbetweendifferentdirectionsismaintainedbutnotthelineardistances.Thefollowingsketch
highlights the major differences in the ways such projections are drawn. Engineering projection is
takenwiththehelpofasetparallelbeamofrayswhereasstereographicprojectionistakenwiththe
help of a point source of light. In addition in engineering projection the object is real with exact
dimensionwhereasinstereographicprojectiontheobjectisassumedtobetiny.Infactitissosmall
thatallplaneswithinitcouldbeassumedtobepassingthroughtheorigin.Thisiswhydistanceisof
no significance. However the angles between directions remain the same. This is why it is often
referredtoasangletrueprojection.

Figure 1: Normal engineering projection

uses parallel beam of rays. This ensures
correspondence between distances
betweentwopoints.

Figure2:Projectionwiththehelpof
a point source of light. Object gets
magnified.

Howissuchaprojectionconstructed?

Unlikeengineeringprojectiontheobjectishypothetical.Itisdimensionless.Thequestionthatcomes
up is what do we project? There are hypothetical lines and planes passing through the origin
denotingplanenormalandplanes.Thissectiondescribeshowaprojectionoftheselinesandplanes
could be constructed. Imagine that a tiny crystal placed at the centre of a large sphere called
referencesphereasshowninfigure3.Anyplanewithinthecrystalifextendedwouldintersectthe
reference sphere along a circle. A perpendicular to this plane passing through origin if extended
wouldintersectthereferencesphereatapairofpointscalledpolesseparatedby180.
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Figure3:Imaginethatatinycrystalis
placed at the centre of a large
reference sphere. The crystal is so
small that any plane you think of
withinthecrystalwouldpassthrough
the origin. If you extend the same it
would intersect the sphere along a
circle.Itsradiuswouldbethesameas
that of the sphere. Such circles are
called great circles. Figure shows 3
such circles representing three cube
planes.Noteitssimilaritywiththatof
a globe. This is why the poles are
often denoted as east (E), west (W),
north(N)&south(S).

Figure 4: Shows a reference sphere with a tiny

crystalatitscentre.NSrepresentsnorth&south
polesasinaglobe.EWlikewisedenoteeastwest
axis. The hatched surface represents a plane
whichhasbeenextendedtointersectthesphere
along a great circle. The normal to this plane is
extendedto meetthesphericalsurfaceatpoint
P called the pole of this plane. Assume the
sphere to be transparent & the poles including
the points N, S, E, W be marked as black dots.
Place a light source at LS and project the poles
(blackdots)ontheplanepassingthroughNS&
EW axes asshown.The pointPrepresentsthe
location of the pole P in the stereographic
projectionofthecrystal.

Figure 5: Represents a stereographic projection

oftheplaneandthepolePofthecrystalplaced
atthecentreofareferencesphereasshownin
figure4. HerethepointPhasbeen denotedas
P. Note that the plane passing through poles N,
W,S,Ecalledprojectionplaneappearsasacircle
whose radius is same as that of the reference
sphere.ThestraightlinesjoiningNSandEWare
inrealitygreatcircles;ameridianpassingthough
the NS axis of the sphere and its equatorial
plane.Thehatchedsurfaceinfigure4meetsthe
spherealongagreatcircle.Itsprojectionappears
asacurvedlinesimilartothatofalongitudeon
aglobe.Thistoorepresentsagreatcircle.

The above illustrations tell us how to represent a plane or a pole of a crystal on a stereographic
projection.Inany2Dsketchordrawingweneedasetofreferenceaxesandacoordinatesystemto
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specifythelocationofanypointorasetofpointscomprisingalineoracurve.Forexampleona
globethelocationofaplaceisspecifiedintermsoflongitudesandlatitudes.Longituderepresents
the intersection of a plane passing through the centre of the globe and North & South poles with
that of the globe. It is an imaginary circle having the same radius as that of the globe. Latitude
representstheintersectionofaplaneperpendiculartonorthsouthaxesbutnotnecessarilypassing
throughtheorigin,withthatoftheglobesurface.Itisalsoanimaginarylineonthesurfaceofthe
globe. Its radius keeps increasing from zero at North Pole to its maximum at the equatorial plane
and keeps decreasing there after till it becomes zero at South Pole. Imagine a ruled transparent
globeconsistingoflongitudesandlatitudesdrawnatregularintervals.Ifyoutakeitsstereographic
projection you would get a set of grid lines within a circle called Wulff net. A sample is shown in
figure6.

Wulffnet&itsapplications
90

54
36

18
90
90

72 54 36 0

0
B

18
36
54

90

Figure 6: This is a schematic representation of

whataWulffnetlookslike.Notethattheouter
circleisalsoalongitude.Itscentrecoincideswith
thatofthereferencecircle.Theverticalstraight
linepassingthroughNorth&Southpolesisalso
alongitude.Itscentreliesatinfinity.Restofthe
longitudes have their centres lying on the
equator between the centre of reference circle
and infinity. Latitudes are lines not passing
through North & South poles. Equator is also a
latitude although it represents the projection of
agreatcircle.ItscentreliesonthelinejoiningNS
poles at infinity. Rest of the latitudes are also
circles with their centres in between infinity &
thecentreofthereferencecircleonNSaxis.

Apoleisapointwhosecoordinatesaredescribedbyitslongitudeandlatitude.TheWulffnetmay
beassumedtoconsistoffourquadrants:NE,NW,SWandSE.Asanillustrationletusplaceapoleat
36N54Eandanotherat36S36E.Notethatboththepoleslieonsamelongitude.Apoleyoumay
recalldenotesnormaltoaplaneandalongitudeinaWulffnetalsodenotesaplane.Sincethetwo
polesareonthesamelongitudeitmeansthattheperpendiculartothetwoplaneslieonthesame
plane.Thereforetheanglebetweenthetwocanbedirectlyreadfromthelatitudes.Inthiscaseit
comestobe90.

Wulff net also helps in performing rotation operation. Such an operation should not alter the
relativepositionsofthepolesofacrystal.TherearetwopolesinaWulffnetaboutwhichrotation
caneasilybeperformed.Thesearethecentreofthenetandeitherofthetwopoles;northorsouth.
Theformerisasimplerotationoperationwhereasincaseofthelatterthelatitudesarethepaths
aboutwhichthepolesshouldmove.

N N
Figure 7: Illustrates rotation about the centre of the projection. Note
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W
thatthelocationsofallpolesexcepttheoneatthecentrechange.The
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E dottedcircleisthepaththepoletakesduringrotation.Locationsofnew
W
E NS&EWaxesareshownasdottedlines.
S

W
S

Figure 8: Illustrates rotation about either North or South poles. All

along respective latitudes. Filled in small
poles except N & S move
E circles represent positions before rotation and unfilled small circles
denotepositionsafterrotation.Notethattheequatorisalsoasmall
circle or latitude. It also can be considered as mirror plane. This is
evident from the shapes of latitudes on either sides of the equator.
Note that pole W also moves through the same angle. Its new

Anglesbetweenplanes&poles
Theanglebetweentwoplanesandthatbetweentheirnormalsareidentical.Figure910illustrates
the use of Wulff net in the measurement of angles between two poles. It is more convenient to
representpolesratherthanplaneonaprojection.Aplaneasalreadyexplainedisrepresentedbya
greatcircle.Itisoftennecessarytoplotlocationsofatleastthreepolesnotlyingonthesamegreat
circle to represent the orientation of a crystal. The projection gets crowded if we try to represent
eachplanebygreatcircles.

PoleA

Reference
sphere

PoleB

PlaneB

S
PlaneA

Figure 9: Shows location of two planes and

theirperpendicularswithinareferencesphere.
Planecontainingthetwoplanenormalsisalso
displayed. Angle between the two should be
measuredbyplacingaprotectoronthisplane.

Planecontainingthe
twoplanenormals

Figure 10: This is the stereographic projection

displaying location of these two poles. To find
outtheanglebetweenthetwoputaWulffnet
onit.Itiskeptinsuchawaythatthetwopoles
lie on a longitude. The angle is obtained
subtractinglatitudeofBfromthatofA.

Howtolocateaplanecorrespondingtoapole?
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Apolerepresentsanormaltoaplane.Itmeansthattheanglebetweenthepoleandanylineonthe
planeshouldbe90.Thereforetheplaneontheprojectionshouldbethelocusofapointsubtending
90withthepole.Thiscanbedrawnbyplacingtheprojectiononatransparentsheetplacedonthe
Wulffnetsuchthatthepoleliesontheequator.Tracethelongitudethatis90awayfromthepole.
Notethateverypointonthissubtends90withthepole.Thisisillustratedinfigure11.
Problem:Findthelineofintersectionbetweentwoplanesifthelocationsoftheirpolesareshown
onstereographicprojection.Seefigure12.
N

PoleA

90

Plane

PoleB

90

Pole

PoleC:
intersectionof
planesA&B

Figure11:Showshowtotracetheplanefor
agiven pole. EWNS poles are indicated to
show position of Wulff net. The longitude

90awayistheplane.

PlaneB

PlaneA

Figure 12: Shows how to find line of intersection of

planes corresponding to poles A & B. Note it can be
doneintwoways:eitherbytracingrespectiveplanes
orbylocatingpoleoftheplanecontainingA&B

Standardprojectionofacubiccrystal
Standard projection displays relative positions of different poles of a crystal. Let us see how to
construct such a projection of cubic crystal on a specific plane of the reference sphere. Figure 13
showsthewaythecrystalisplacedatthecentreofthesphere.Let(001)betheplaneofprojection.
Locationsofselectedpolesarealsoshown.Notehowthepole011isprojectedon001plane.

100

001

110

110

011

111

101

011

010

010

010

011

111

110

100

110
001

Figure 13: Displays how the crystal is

placedatthecentreofreferencesphere

001

101

111
011

010

111
110

100
Figure14:Standard001projectionofacubic
crystalplacedasshowninfigure13

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Standard001projectionshowingpositionsoflowindicesplanesareshowninfigure14.Wulffnet
and angular relationships between different planes and directions would help precise location of
polesontheprojection.
Foracubiccrystalanglesbetweentwoplanes()havingMillerindices(h1k1l1)and(h2k2l2)isgivenby
thefollowingrelation.Theindicesofplanenormalandtheplaneareexactlythesameiftheaxesare
orthogonal.
cos

(1)

Thereforeplanesperpendiculartoeachothershouldsatisfythefollowingrelation:
0(2)
On the standard projection you would notice that there are several poles lying on the same great
circle. They all have a common direction. This represents their line of intersection. A set of such
planeshavingacommonlineofintersectionissaidtobelongtoazone.Thelineofintersectionis
calledthezoneaxis.Alookatthestandardprojectionwouldrevealthatplaneshavingthefollowing
indices;100,110,010,110,100, 110,010,110belongtoazonehaving001asitszoneaxis.Eachof
thesepolessatisfiesequation2with001.
Problem: Show that if poles h1k1l1 and h2k2l2 belong to zone [uvw]; any pole having indices
,
,
also belong to the same zone; where m & n are nonzero
multipliers.
Answer: Since [uvw] is the zone axis it should satisfy equation 2 with both the poles. Therefore
0(3)
0(4)
Onmultiplyingequation3bymand4bynandadding(orsubtracting)thetwoonegets:
0(5)
Thereforepoleshavingindices

belongtothesamezone.

Problem:Howwouldyouplotthelocationofpolehklofacubiccrystalonastandardprojection?
Answer:Positionsofthecubepolesareontheprojectionareknown(orcanbeeasilylocated).To
locatedhkloneneedstofindtheanglesbetweenthethreecubeaxesandthepole.Thisisillustrated
inthefollowingfigure.Usingequation1onegetsthedirectioncosineswithrespecttocrystalaxes.

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hkl

001

010

100

Figure15:Showsplanehklanditsnormal.Theanglesbetweentheplanenormalandcrystalaxesare

;
;
.Oncetheanglesareknown
givenby

thepolecanbelocatedontheprojectionasshownabove.Wulfnetshouldbeusedtomeasurethe

angles.

The location of the poles of similar planes on the standard projection gives an idea about crystal
symmetry.Thiscanbeverifiedbyperformingrotationoperationaboutaspecificdirection.Cubeaxis
isknowntobeanaxisoffourfoldsymmetry.Ifacrystalisrotatedby90aboutitshouldcometoan
identicalposition.Itisevidentthatsimilarpolesarelocatedinidenticalfashionineachofthefour
quadrants.Therefore90rotationabout001wouldbringsimilarpolestoidenticallocations.Ifyou
try to give 120 rotation about 111 you would find the poles come to occupy similar positions.
Therefore it is an axis of 3 fold symmetry. Likewise you can show that 110 is an axis of 2 fold
symmetry. Rotation operations can be used to convert 001 projection to 110 or 111 standard
projections.

Howtoplotlocationsofpolesofhighindicesplanes?

This can be done in two ways. The direct method is to convert Miller indices to angles the pole
subtendswiththecrystalaxesandusethesetolocatethepole.Themethodhasbeenillustratedin
oneofthesolvedexamples.Amoreelegantmethodistousetheconceptofzone&zoneaxis.Let
usseehowwecouldlocatepositionsofpolesoftype<112>.Ifpolesh1k1l1andh2k2l2belongtozone
,
,
also belong to the same zone;
[uvw]; any pole having indices
where m & n are nonzero multipliers. Planes belonging to the same zone lie on the same great
circle.Ifm=n=1,pole112shouldlieonthezonecontaining111and001aswellasonthezone
containing 101 and 011. Zone (or the plane) containing 001 & 111 is already drawn. Although it
appearsasastraightlineinrealityitrepresentsagreatcircle.Tracethegreatcircle(longitude)by
placingitoverWulffnetsothatitsNSaxiscoincideswithlinejoiningpoles110with110.Figure16
illustrates how two additional great circles have been plotted. A few of these have been indexed.
Thereare12suchpoles.Twomoregreatcirclesaretobedrawn.Trythisasanexercise.
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100

110

110

101

111
112
010

011

001
112

111
110

101
211

111
121
011

Figure 16: Illustrates how higher indices

poles can easily be located by drawing
great circles. In comparison to figure 15
010
thishastwoadditionalgreatcircles.

111
110

100

Problem:Findthedirectionalongwhichthefollowingplanesintersect(101)(111)&(112).
Answer:Thepolesofthegivenplaneslieonthesamegreatcircle.Thecommonlineofintersection
isthezoneaxis.Usingequation2itcomesouttobe111.

Summary
Inthismoduletheconceptofstereographicprojectionanditsapplicationinrepresentingorientation
of crystal has been explained. This is an angle true projection. This allows certain simple rotation
operationstobeperformed.Italsohelpsmeasurementofanglesbetweenpoleswiththehelpofa
referenceframecalledWulffnet,atwodimensionalrepresentationofaruledglobe.Thisisusefulin
performing trace analysis on crystals to find out habit planes of precipitates & twins. It helps
understandcrystallographyofphasetransformation.

Exercise:
1. What is the basic difference between engineering & stereographic projections? Show with
the help of a neat sketch the relation between a plane and a pole drawn on a projection
plane.
2. Drawastandard(001)projectionofcubiccrystalshowingpolesoflowindicesplanes:(100),
(110)and(111).Listthe[112]poleslyingonplane(111)
3. You are given a standard 001 projection of a cubic crystal. Comment on the size of the
crystal.
4. Whydoyouneedtobringthetwopolesofstereographicprojectiononalongitudeofthe
Wulffnetbyrotatingitaboutitscentretomeasuretheanglebetweenthetwo?

Answer:
9

1. Inengineeringprojectionisadistancetrueprojectionwhereasstereographicprojectionis
anangletrueprojection.
Plane

900
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Pole
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2.

100
110

11 0
111

010

010
111

111

110

110
100

3. Thecrystal(dimension)isassumedtobeapointtoconstructastereographicprojectionofa
crystal. All planes in the crystal would therefore pass through the centre of the reference
sphere.Crystalplaneslike(100),(200),(300)etcareallcoincident.

4. Apolehklinastereographicprojectionrepresentsanormaltotheplane(hkl).Itistherefore
a direction in 3D. The angle measurement is done on plane passing through the two
directions.AgreatcircleinaWulffnetrepresentsaplane.Thereforetomeasuretheangle
thetwopolestheWulffnetinsokeptthatboththepoleslieonagreatcircle.

10

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