[Edu-sig] Calculating area of a surface plane on a spherical body.

[Jonathan Pennington]

Given the recent talk about using Python to teach mathematics, I have
the following question for the math gurus:

Given > 3 points on a plane, how would one use Python to calculate the
surface area of that plane. I'm assuming numpy would be used because
it's going to run quite frequently.

To give more of an explaination, I'm trying to develop an educational
program that is adding mathematics to my existing attempt to merge
science(geology) and programming. Students will take coordinate data
(either in lat/lon or UTM format) and enter the data into their
programs to manipulate it, so the points will probably be in lat/lon
format.

If a program already exisits with such a solution, I wouldn't mind
reading the code. Otherwise, I'd like a math guru's opinion on
well-formed solutions.

Thanks
-J
-- 
Jonathan Pennington	|	john@coastalgeology.org

	 "It's hard to take life too seriously
	    when you realize yours is a joke." -me