Re: [lojban] diameter, radius, center, midpoint

["Philip Newton" <pnewton@gmx.de>]

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. <pnewton@gmx.de>