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Re: Sphere through 4 points

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg85415] Re: [mg85401] Sphere through 4 points
  • From: danl at wolfram.com
  • Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:10:05 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <200802090915.EAA16803@smc.vnet.net>

> 	Given 4 points in 3-space not lying in a plane, I want the
> center and radius of the incident sphere. I know about the elegant
> determinant solution (4 or 5 determinants, each 4x4, plus a few
> arithmetic operations) and I'm using that, but maybe someone has coded
> a faster version.
> 	Thanks for any information.
>
> Steve Gray
>

Not sure if this is faster, but could do:

centerAndRadius[data_] := Module[
  {x, y, z, vars, rsq, coeffs, polys, lpolys, cen},
  vars = {x, y, z};
  polys = (vars.vars - rsq) /.
    Thread[vars -> (vars - Transpose[data])];
  lpolys = Expand[Rest[polys] - First[polys]];
  coeffs = CoefficientArrays[lpolys, vars];
  cen = LinearSolve[Last[coeffs], First[coeffs]];
  {cen, Sqrt[rsq]} /.
   First[Solve[(First[polys] /. Thread[vars -> cen]) == 0]]
  ]

In[147]:= SeedRandom[1111];
data = RandomReal[{-5, 5}, {4, 3}];
centerAndRadius[data]

Out[149]= {{-2.25666, -13.9661, 7.0018}, 15.1774}

Can do around 200+ per second, on my laptop.

In[150]:= Timing[Do[centerAndRadius[data], {100}]]
Out[150]= {0.421, Null}

Daniel Lichtblau
Wolfram Research




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