- Abstract
vsepg_c finds the separation angle in radians between two double
precision vectors of arbitrary dimension. This angle is defined
as zero if either vector is zero.
- Required_Reading
None.
- Brief_I/O
VARIABLE I/O DESCRIPTION
-------- --- --------------------------------------------------
v1 I First vector.
v2 I Second vector.
ndim I The number of elements in v1 and v2.
- Detailed_Input
v1 is any double precision vector of arbitrary dimension.
v2 is also a double precision vector of arbitrary dimension.
v1 or v2 or both may be the zero vector.
ndim is the dimension of the both of the input vectors
v1 and v2.
- Detailed_Output
vsepg_c the angle between v1 and v2 expressed in radians.
vsepg_c is strictly non-negative. For input vectors of
four or more dimensions, the angle is defined as the
generalization of the definition for three dimensions.
If either v1 or v2 is the zero vector, then vsepg_c is
defined to be 0 radians.
- Parameters
None.
- Particulars
In four or more dimensions this angle does not have a physically
realizable interpretation. However, the angle is defined as
the generalization of the following definition which is valid in
three or two dimensions:
In the plane, it is a simple matter to calculate the angle
between two vectors once the two vectors have been made to be
unit length. Then, since the two vectors form the two equal
sides of an isosceles triangle, the length of the third side
is given by the expression
length = 2.0 * sine ( vsepg/2.0 )
The length is given by the magnitude of the difference of the
two unit vectors
length = norm ( u1 - u2 )
Once the length is found, the value of vsepg_c may be calculated
by inverting the first expression given above as
vsepg_c = 2.0 * arcsine ( length/2.0 )
This expression becomes increasingly unstable when vsepg_c gets
larger than pi/2 or 90 degrees. In this situation (which is
easily detected by determining the sign of the dot product of
v1 and v2) the supplementary angle is calculated first and
then vsepg_c is given by
vsepg_c = pi - SUPPLEMENTARY_ANGLE
- Examples
The following table gives sample values for v1, v2 and vsepg_c
implied by the inputs.
v1 v2 ndim vsepg_c
-----------------------------------------------------------------
(1, 0, 0, 0) (1, 0, 0, 0) 4 0.0
(1, 0, 0) (0, 1, 0) 3 pi/2 (=1.71...)
(3, 0) (-5, 0) 2 pi (=3.14...)
- Restrictions
The user is required to insure that the input vectors will not
cause floating point overflow upon calculation of the vector
dot product since no error detection or correction code is
implemented. In practice, this is not a significant
restriction.
- Exceptions
Error free.
- Files
None
- Author_and_Institution
C.A. Curzon (JPL)
K.R. Gehringer (JPL)
H.A. Neilan (JPL)
W.L. Taber (JPL)
E.D. Wright (JPL)
- Literature_References
None
- Version
-CSPICE Version 1.0.0, 29-JUN-1999
- Index_Entries
angular separation of n-dimensional vectors
- Link to routine source