Spherical projections with OSXStereonet

OSXStereonet is a Macintosh application to plot spherical data (lines, planes and small circles) in 2D, equal angle or equal area stereonets of any view orientation, or in 3D. The program can also operate on the data calculating angles and intersections between lines or planes, lines (poles) from planes and vice versa, or performing rotations and statistical analyses (cylindrical or conical best fit, mean vectors and contouring) of the data. The stereonet and most of the program's methods are based on linear algebra. We illustrate the functionality of the program as well as its close relation to linear algebra concepts such as transformations through several examples including down plunge projections, map calculations, stress orientations and paleomagnetic reversal tests.

► A Macintosh program to visualize and operate on spherical data in 2D and 3D.
► The mathematics of the stereonet and its operations is described.
► Vectors and even second order tensors problems can be solved with stereonets.