- Abstract
Return the distance between two vectors of arbitrary dimension.
- Required_Reading
None.
- Brief_I/O
Variable I/O Description
-------- --- --------------------------------------------------
v1,
v2 I Two vectors of arbitrary dimension.
ndim I The common dimension of v1 and v2
The function returns the distance between v1 and v2.
- Detailed_Input
v1,
v2 are two vectors of arbitrary dimension, the
distance between which is desired.
ndim is the common dimension of v1 and v2. ndim must be
non-negative and must not exceed the minimum of the
declared sizes of the actual arguments corresponding
to v1 and v2.
- Detailed_Output
The function returns the distance between v1 and v2. This is
defined as
|| v1 - v2 ||,
where || x || indicates the Euclidean norm of the vector x.
If ndim is less than 1, the function value is set to 0..
- Parameters
None.
- Particulars
The Euclidean norm of an n-dimensional vector
(x , x , ... , x )
1 2 n
is defined as
1/2
2 2 2
( x + x + . . . + x ).
1 2 n
This number is the distance of the point (x, y, z) from the
origin. If n = 3, and A and B are two vectors whose components
are
( a[0], a[1], a[2] ) and ( b[0], b[1], b[2] ),
then the distance between A and B is the norm of the difference
A - B, which has components
( a[0] - b[0], a[1] - b[1], a[2] - b[2] ).
A related routine is vdist_c, which computes the distance between
two 3-vectors.
- Examples
1) If v1 is
[ 2.0, 3.0 ]
and v2 is
[ 5.0, 7.0 ],
and ndim is 2, then
vdistg_c ( v1, v2, ndim );
will be 5.0.
- Restrictions
None.
- Exceptions
Error free.
- Files
None.
- Author_and_Institution
N.J. Bachman (JPL)
E.D. Wright (JPL)
- Literature_References
None.
- Version
-CSPICE Version 1.1.0, 22-OCT-1998 (NJB)
Made input vectors const.
-CSPICE Version 1.0.0, 23-MAR-1998 (EDW)
- Index_Entries
distance between n-dimensional vectors
- Link to routine source