The sphere of radius \(1\) centred on the origin is the set of points \((x,y,z)\) that obey
\begin{equation*}
G(x,y,z)= x^2+y^2+z^2=1
\end{equation*}
We cannot express this surface as the graph of a function because, for each \((x,y)\) with \(x^2+y^2 \lt 1\text{,}\) there are two \(z\)’s that obey \(x^2+y^2+z^2=1\text{,}\) namely
\begin{equation*}
z=\pm\sqrt{1-x^2-y^2}
\end{equation*}
On the other hand, locally, this surface is the graph of a function. This means that, for any point \((x_0, y_0, z_0)\) on the sphere, all points of the surface that are sufficiently near \((x_0, y_0, z_0)\) can be expressed in one of the forms \(z=f(x,y)\) or \(x=g(y,z)\text{,}\) or \(y=h(x,z)\text{.}\) For example, the part of the sphere that is within a distance \(\sqrt{2}\) of the point \((0,0,1)\) is
\begin{align*}
&\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x^2+y^2+z^2=1,\ |(x,y,z) - (0,0,1)| \lt \sqrt{2}}\\
&=\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x^2+y^2+z^2=1,\ x^2+y^2+(z-1)^2 \lt 2}\\
&=\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x^2+y^2+z^2=1,\ x^2+y^2+z^2-2z+1 \lt 2}\\
&=\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x^2+y^2+z^2=1,\ z \gt 0}\\
&=\Set{(x,y,z)}{ z=\sqrt{1-x^2-y^2},\ x^2+y^2 \lt 1}
\end{align*}
This is illustrated in the figure below which shows the \(y=0\) section of the sphere \(x^2+y^2+z^2=1\) and also the \(y=0\) section of the set of points that are within a distance \(\sqrt{2}\) of \((0,0,1)\text{.}\) (They are the points inside the dashed circle.)
Similarly, as illustrated schematically in the figure below, the part of the sphere that is within a distance \(\sqrt{2}\) of the point \((1,0,0)\) is
\begin{align*}
&\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x^2+y^2+z^2=1,\ |(x,y,z) - (1,0,0)| \lt \sqrt{2}}\\
&=\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x^2+y^2+z^2=1,\ (x-1)^2+y^2+z^2 \lt 2}\\
&=\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x^2+y^2+z^2=1,\ x^2-2x+1+y^2+z^2 \lt 2}\\
&=\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x^2+y^2+z^2=1,\ x \gt 0}\\
&=\Set{(x,y,z)}{ x=\sqrt{1-y^2-z^2},\ y^2+z^2 \lt 1}
\end{align*}
The figure below shows the \(y=0\) section of the sphere \(x^2+y^2+z^2=1\) and also the \(y=0\) section of the set of points that are within a distance \(\sqrt{2}\) of \((1,0,0)\text{.}\) (Again, they are the points inside the dashed circle.)
We can parametrize the unit sphere by using spherical coordinates, which you should have seen before. As a reminder, here is a figure showing the definitions of the three spherical coordinates
\begin{align*}
\rho&=\text{ distance from }(x,y,z)\text{ to }(0,0,0)\\
\varphi&=\text{ angle between the line }\overline{(0,0,0)\,(x,y,z)}
\text{ and the $z$ axis}\\
\theta&=\text{ angle between the line }\overline{(0,0,0)\,(x,y,0)}
\text{ and the $x$ axis}
\end{align*}
and here are two more figures giving the side and top views of the previous figure.
From the figure, we see that Cartesian and spherical coordinates are related by
\begin{align*}
x&=\rho\sin\varphi\cos\theta\\
y&=\rho\sin\varphi\sin\theta\\
z&=\rho\cos\varphi
\end{align*}
The points on the sphere \(x^2+y^2+z^2=1\) are precisely the set of points with \(\rho=1\text{.}\) So we can use the parametrization
\begin{equation*}
\vr(\theta,\varphi)
=\big(\sin\varphi\cos\theta\,,\sin\varphi\sin\theta\,,\,\cos\varphi\big)
\end{equation*}
Here is how to see that as \(\varphi\) runs over \((0,\pi)\) and \(\theta\) runs over \([0,2\pi)\text{,}\) \(\vr(\theta,\varphi)\) covers the whole sphere \(x^2+y^2+z^2=1\) except for the north pole (\(\varphi=0\) gives the north pole for all values of \(\theta\)) and the south pole (\(\varphi=\pi\) gives the south pole for all values of \(\theta\)).
-
Fix \(\theta\) and have \(\varphi\) run over the interval \(0 \lt \varphi\le \frac{\pi}{2}\text{.}\) Then \(\vr(\theta,\varphi)\) traces out one quarter of a circle starting at the north pole \(\vr(\theta,0) = (0,0,1)\) (but excluding the north pole itself) and ending at the point \(\vr(\theta,\frac{\pi}{2}) = (\cos\theta,\sin\theta,0)\) in the \(xy\)-plane.
-
Keep \(\theta\) fixed at the same value and extend the interval over which \(\varphi\) runs to \(0 \lt \varphi \lt \pi\text{.}\) Now \(\vr(\theta,\varphi)\) traces out a semi-circle starting at the north pole \(\vr(\theta,0) = (0,0,1)\text{,}\) ending at the south pole \(\vr(\theta,\pi) = (0,0,-1)\) (but excluding both the north and south poles themselves) and passing through the point \(\vr(\theta,\frac{\pi}{2}) = (\cos\theta,\sin\theta,0)\) in the \(xy\)-plane.
Finally have \(\theta\) run over \(0\le\theta \lt 2\pi\text{.}\) Then the semicircle rotates about the \(z\)-axis, sweeping out the full sphere, except for the north and south poles.
Recall that \(\varphi\) is the angle between the radius vector and the \(z\)-axis. If you hold \(\varphi\) fixed and increase \(\theta\) by a small amount \(\dee{\theta}\text{,}\) \(\vr(\theta,\varphi)\) sweeps out the red circular arc in the figure on the left below. If you hold \(\varphi\) fixed and vary \(\theta\) from \(0\) to \(2\pi\text{,}\) \(\vr(\theta,\varphi)\) sweeps out a line of latitude. The figure on the right below gives the lines of latitude (or at least the parts of those lines in the first octant) for \(\varphi=\frac{\pi}{10}\text{,}\) \(\frac{2\pi}{10}\text{,}\) \(\frac{3\pi}{10}\text{,}\) \(\frac{4\pi}{10}\) and \(\frac{5\pi}{10}=\frac{\pi}{2}\text{.}\)
On the other hand, if you hold \(\theta\) fixed and increase \(\varphi\) by a small amount \(\dee{\varphi}\text{,}\) \(\vr(\theta,\varphi)\) sweeps out the red circular arc in the figure on the left below. If you hold \(\theta\) fixed and vary \(\varphi\) from \(0\) to \(\pi\text{,}\) \(\vr(\theta,\varphi)\) sweeps out a line of longitude. The figure on the right below gives the lines of longitude (or at least the parts of those lines in the first octant) for \(\theta=0\text{,}\) \(\frac{\pi}{10}\text{,}\) \(\frac{2\pi}{10}\text{,}\) \(\frac{3\pi}{10}\text{,}\) \(\frac{4\pi}{10}\) and \(\frac{5\pi}{10}=\frac{\pi}{2}\text{.}\)