Lecture 13:

Geometry
Steven Skiena

Department of Computer Science

State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794–4400

http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/∼skiena
Geometry
This chapter will deal with programming problems associated
with “real” geometry – lines, points, circles, and so forth.
Although you did geometry in high school, it can be
surprisingly difficult to program even very simple things. One
reason is that floating point arithmetic introduces numerical
uncertainty.
Another difficulty of geometric programming is that certain
“obvious” operations you do with a pencil, such as finding the
intersection of two lines, requires non-trivial programming to
do correctly with a computer.
Degeneracy
Special cases or degeneracies require extra attention when
doing geometric programming. For these reasons I recom-
mend you carefully study my code fragments before writing
your own.
There is more geometry to come next week, when we con-
sider problems associated with line segments and polygons a
field known as computational geometry,
Lines
Straight lines are the shortest distance between any two
points. Lines are of infinite length in both directions, as
opposed to line segments, which are finite. We limit our
discussion here to lines in the plane.
Every line l is completely represented by any pair of points
(x1, y1) and (x2, y2) which lie on it.
Lines are also completely described by equations such as
y = mx + b, where m is the slope of the line and b is the
y-intercept, i.e., the unique point (0, b) where it crosses the
x-axis.
Line Type
Vertical lines cannot be described by such equations, how-
ever, because dividing by ∆x means dividing by zero. The
equation x = c denotes a vertical line that crosses the x-axis
at the point (c, 0).
We use the more general formula ax + by + c = 0 as the
foundation of our line type because it covers all possible lines
in the plane:
typedef struct {
double a; /* x-coefficient */
double b; /* y-coefficient */
double c; /* constant term */
} line;
Multiplying these coefficients by any non-zero constant
yields an alternate representation for any line. We establish
a canonical representation by insisting that the y-coefficient
equal 1 if it is non-zero. Otherwise, we set the x-coefficient
to 1:
points_to_line(point p1, point p2, line *l)
{
if (p1[X] == p2[X]) {
l->a = 1;
l->b = 0;
l->c = -p1[X];
} else {
l->b = 1;
l->a = -(p1[Y]-p2[Y])/(p1[X]-p2[X]);
l->c = -(l->a * p1[X]) - (l->b * p1[Y]);
}
}

point_and_slope_to_line(point p, double m, line *l)

{
l->a = -m;
l->b = 1;
l->c = -((l->a*p[X]) + (l->b*p[Y]));
}
Line Intersection
Two distinct lines have one intersection point unless they are
parallel; in which case they have none. Parallel lines share
the same slope but have different intercepts and by definition
never cross.
bool parallelQ(line l1, line l2)
{
return ( (fabs(l1.a-l2.a) <= EPSILON) &&
(fabs(l1.b-l2.b) <= EPSILON) );
}

The intersection point of lines l1 : y = m1x + b1 and l2 : y2 =

m2x + b2 is the point where they are equal, namely,
b2 − b1 b2 − b1
x= , y = m1 + b1
m1 − m2 m1 − m2
Implementation

intersection_point(line l1, line l2, point p)

{
if (same_lineQ(l1,l2)) {
printf("Warning: Identical lines, all points intersect.\n");
p[X] = p[Y] = 0.0;
return;
}

if (parallelQ(l1,l2) == TRUE) {
printf("Error: Distinct parallel lines do not intersect.\n");
return;
}

p[X] = (l2.b*l1.c - l1.b*l2.c) / (l2.a*l1.b - l1.a*l2.b);

if (fabs(l1.b) > EPSILON) /* test for vertical line */

p[Y] = - (l1.a * (p[X]) + l1.c) / l1.b;
else
p[Y] = - (l2.a * (p[X]) + l2.c) / l2.b;
}
Angles
An angle is the union of two rays sharing a common endpoint.
The entire range of angles spans from 0 to 2π radians or,
equivalently, 0 to 360 degrees. Most trigonometric libraries
assume angles are measured in radians.
A right angle measures 90o or π/2 radians.
Any two non-parallel lines intersect each other at a given
angle. Lines l1 : a1x +b1y +c1 = 0 and l2 : a2x +b2y +c2 = 0,
written in the general form, intersect at the angle θ given by:
a 1 b2 − a 2 b1
tan θ =
a 1 a 2 + b1 b2
For lines in slope-intercept form this reduces to tan θ =
(m2 − m1)/(m1m2 + 1).
Two lines are perpendicular if they cross at right angles to
each other. The line perpendicular to l : y = mx + b is
y = (−1/m)x + b′, for all values of b′.
Closest Point
A very useful subproblem is identifying the point on line l
which is closest to a given point p. This closest point lies on
the line through p which is perpendicular to l, and hence can
be found using the routines we have already developed:
closest_point(point p_in, line l, point p_c)
{
line perp; /* perpendicular to l through (x,y) */

if (fabs(l.b) <= EPSILON) { /* vertical line */

p_c[X] = -(l.c);
p_c[Y] = p_in[Y];
return;
}

if (fabs(l.a) <= EPSILON) { /* horizontal line */

p_c[X] = p_in[X];
p_c[Y] = -(l.c);
return;
}

point_and_slope_to_line(p_in,1/l.a,&perp); /* normal case */

intersection_point(l,perp,p_c);
}
Triangles
Each pair of rays with a common endpoint defines an internal
angle of a radians and an external angle of 2π − a radians.
The three internal (smaller) angles of any triangle add up to
180o = π radians.
The Pythagorean theorem enables us to calculate the length
of the third side of any right triangle given the length of the
other two. Specifically, |a|2 + |b|2 = |c|2, where a and b are
the two shorter sides, and c is the longest side or hypotenuse.
We can go farther to analyze triangles using trigonometry.
Trigonometry
The trigonometric functions sine and cosine are defined as the
x- and y-coordinates of points on the unit circle centered at
(0, 0). The tangent is the ratio of sine over cosine.
These functions enable us to relate the lengths of any two
sides of a right triangle T with the non-right angles of T . The
non-hypotenuse edges can be labeled as opposite or adjacent
edges in relation to a given angle a. Then
|adjacent| |opposite| |op
cos(a) = , sin(a) = , tan(a) =
|hypotenuse| |hypotenuse| |ad
Use the famous Indian Chief Soh-Cah-Toa to remember
these relations. “Cah” means Cosine equals Adjacent over
Hypotenuse, for example.
Solving Triangles
The Law of Sines provides the relationship between sides and
angles in any triangle. For angles A, B, C, and opposing
edges a, b, c
a b c
= =
sin A sin B sin C
The Law of Cosines is a generalization of the Pythagorean
theorem beyond right angles. For any triangle with angles A,
B, C, and opposing edges a, b, c,
a2 = b2 + c2 − 2bc cos A
Solving triangles is the art of deriving the unknown angles
and edge lengths of a triangle given a subset of such
measurements.
Area of a Triangle
The area A(T ) of a triangle T is given by A(T ) = (1/2)ab,
where a is the altitude and b is the base of the triangle.
Another approach to computing the area of a triangle is
directly from its coordinate representation. Using linear
algebra and determinants, it can be shown that the signed area
A(T ) of triangle T = (a, b, c) is
 
ax ay 1








2·A(T ) = bx by 1 = axby −ay bx +ay cx −axcy +bxcy −cxby
 
 
 
 
cx cy 1
 
 
 

This formula generalizes nicely to compute d! times the

volume of a simplex in d dimensions.
Note that the signed areas can be negative, so we must take
the absolute value to compute the actual area. The sign
of this area can be used to build important primitives for
computational geometry.
double signed_triangle_area(point a, point b, point c)
{
return( (a[X]*b[Y] - a[Y]*b[X] + a[Y]*c[X]
- a[X]*c[Y] + b[X]*c[Y] - c[X]*b[Y]) / 2.0 );
}

double triangle_area(point a, point b, point c)

{
return( fabs(signed_triangle_area(a,b,c)) );
}
Circles
A circle is defined as the set of points at a given distance (or
radius) from its center, (xc, yc). A circle can be represented
in two basic ways, either as triples of boundary points or
by its center/radius. For most applications, the center/radius
representation is most convenient:
typedef struct {
point c; /* center of circle */
double r; /* radius of circle */
} circle;

The equation of a circle of radiusrr follows directly from its

center/radius representation, r = (x − xc)2 + (y − yc)2.
Many important quantities associated with circles are easy to
compute. Specifically, A = πr2 and C = 2πr.
A tangent line l intersects the boundary of c but not its
interior. The point of contact between c and l lies on the line
perpendicular to l through the center of c.
We can compute the unknown tangent length x using the
Pythagorean theorem. From x, we can compute either the
tangent point or the angle a. The distance d from O to the
center is computed using the distance formula.
Two circles c1 and c2 of distinct radii r1 and r2 will intersect
if and only if the distance between their centers is at most
r1 + r2 .
The points of intersection form triangles with the two centers
whose edge lengths are totally determined (r1, r2, and the
distance between the centers), so the angles and coordinates
can be computed as needed.
111301 (Dog and Gopher)
Find a hole for a slow gopher to hide from a fast dog.
Is the closest hole really the safest spot for the gopher?
111302 (Rope Crisis in Ropeland!)
What is the length of the shortest rope between two points
around a circular post?
111305 (Birthday Cake)
How do you cut a circular cake such that both pieces are the
same area and contain the same number of cherries?
There is always a solution to this problem if we remove the
constraint that the cutline have integer coordinates – can you
prove it?
Is there a more efficient solution than trying all possible A, B
pairs?
111308 (How Big Is It?)
What is the tightest way to order a non-overlapping collection
of circles so as to minimize the ‘shadow’ of them?
Is it better to order the circles from largest to smallest, or to
interleave them?
Does the order ever not matter?
Will backtracking work for this problem?