I’m trying to find the points of intersection of a cone, centered along the z-axis some distance (f) away from the origin, and a circular cylinder, with an arbitrary angle, at a plane located at the origin (perpendicular to the cone.
This is basically supposed to replicate how a conical light distribution would interfere with a cylindrical light distribution at some plane and I have to find where the particles would interfere.
My thought was to calculate this by the method described in the first paragraph. However, I am having difficulty finding equations necessary to describe a cylinder angled (arbitrarily) to some axis. I believe I will get an ellipse from the cylinder and then relate the parameters to the circle resulting from the intersection with the cone and then match them so they have the same width (if, for instance, the cylinder is angled along the z-axis) and this would provide the (2-d) area of intersection and the points around the circle and within the area.
Any help would be greatly appreciated and if you think I’m doing this the wrong way (which I might be) please tell me. Thank you in advance!
