From pnewton@gmx.de Fri Apr 11 01:58:04 2003 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Fri, 11 Apr 2003 01:58:05 -0700 (PDT) Received: from postman.arcor-online.net ([151.189.0.87]) by digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.12) id 193uM8-0003xb-00 for lojban-list@lojban.org; Fri, 11 Apr 2003 01:57:56 -0700 Received: from hamwpne1 (pc1-oxfd1-5-cust27.oxfd.cable.ntl.com [62.254.134.27]) (authenticated bits=0) by postman.arcor-online.net (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id h3B8vqEZ073386 for ; Fri, 11 Apr 2003 10:57:53 +0200 (CEST) From: "Philip Newton" Organization: datenrevision GmbH & Co. OHG To: lojban-list@lojban.org Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 10:57:50 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [lojban] Re: diameter, radius, center, midpoint Message-ID: <3E969FAE.23746.1A7B6F@localhost> Priority: normal In-reply-to: <200304102241.24691.phma@webjockey.net> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v4.02a) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-description: Mail message body X-archive-position: 4750 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: pnewton@gmx.de Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list On 10 Apr 2003 at 22:41, Pierre Abbat wrote: > Given a set of points, the diameter is the distance between the two farthest > points, or the line through them. The center is the point such that the > distance from it to the farthest point is a minimum. Something is missing here. Wouldn't that mean that the centre is *at* the farthest point, this making the distance 0? Hang on... you mean, the distance from the centre to the farthest point *from it*... rather than "the farthest point" of the collection, which doesn't really have a meaning anyway (though "the two farthest points" does). So depending on where you place the centre, a different point or set of points is the farthest (moving it closer to one of them will make another point the farthest), and the aim is to make the distance to the "current farthest" the minimum of all possible. (Does this method define a unique centre for all possible groups of points?) mi'e filip. -- filip.niutyn.