There are six charges, two negative (yellow), and four positive (blue) confined to a plane as shown below.
I plotted the equal potential lines. Now, I want to draw several lines that follow the smallest potential gradient (black lines). These lines have the properties such that they do not touch any positive charges, but always end at negative charges.
I did this in MATLAB, and I found that for any point on the black lines, if I calculate the potential distribution on a line segment that is perpendicular to the tangent at that point, the smallest potential is always achieved at that point.
Although it is possible to found such points by hand when there are not many charges, and I can then connect them to make the black curves. I am wondering if there is any way to automate this process? When dealing with different orientations, how do I choose the 'right area' to find the smallest potential points? If I look at the whole domain, the smallest potential points are usually located faraway from the charges.
Thank you so much for your time looking at this problem. Please comment below if you have any thoughts.
Cheers,
Mike
Here are my plots:
equal potential lines with field line:
equal potential lines with boundaries:
Here is the codes.
[X, Y] = meshgrid(0:.1:20, 0:.1:20);
x = [ 5 15 10 7 9 2];
y = [ 10 10 17 4 13 18];
q = [ 2 1 -2 2 -3 2];
U = zeros(201, 201, 2);
UU = zeros(201, 201);
for i = 1:6
r = sqrt((X-x(i)).^2 + (Y-y(i)).^2 + 0.01); % to avoid NaN
U(:,:,i) = q(i)./r;
UU = UU + U(:,:,i);
end
[dx, dy] = gradient(-UU);
%quiver(X, Y, dx, dy,2 );
% define the starting point of stremlines (electric field lines)
% originating from positive charges
th = linspace(0,360,19)*pi/180;
x0 = 0.1 * cos(th);
y0 = 0.1 * sin(th);
x1 = 1 * cos(th);
y1 = 1 * sin(th);
hold on
for i = 1:6
if q(i) > 0
streamline(X, Y, dx, dy, x0 + x(i), y0 + y(i));
end
end
% plot the boundaries, starting points picked by trial and error
streamline(X, Y, dx, dy, 13.20, 6.73)
streamline(X, Y, dx, dy, 13.19, 6.75)
streamline(X, Y, dx, dy, 1.85, 13.36)
streamline(X, Y, dx, dy, 1.84, 13.36)
streamline(X, Y, dx, dy, 5.58, 7.05)
streamline(X, Y, dx, dy, 5.58, 7.04)
hold off
Related
I would like to convert a point coordinates to a new generated coordinate system
the original system start in the top left corner of the image (0,0)
The information that I have in a new system are :
1- I have the value of the new original (x0,y0) in some where in the image
2- also I have 2 points on both new axes ( 4 points in total 2 in each line)
using this I can calculate the line equation for the 2 lines of axes (y=a1x+b1) ,(y=a2x+b2)
3- I have vector for each line (Vx, Vy)
Note: sometime the new axes rotate (the lines are not exactly horizontal or vertical)
How can I convert the points coordinates to this new system
any help will be so appreciated
here is the image
First express your lines like a1*(x-x0)+b1*(y-y0)=0 and a2*(x-x0)+b2*(y-y0)=0 and their intersection x0,y0 is accounted for already in the equations.
updated signs
The transformation from x,y to z,w is
z = -sqrt(a1^2+b1^2)*(a2*(x-x0)+b2*(y-y0))/(a2*b1-a1*b2)
w = sqrt(a2^2+b2^2)*(a1*(x-x0)+b1*(y-y0))/(a1*b2-a2*b1)
and the inverse
x = x0 - b1*z/sqrt(a1^2+b1^2) + b2*w/sqrt(a2^2+b2^2)
y = y0 + a1*z/sqrt(a1^2+b1^2) - a2*w/sqrt(a2^2+b2^2)
It would be helpful to scale the coefficients such that sqrt(a1^2+b1^2)=1 and sqrt(a2^2+b2^2)=1.
Note that this works for non-orthogonal lines also. As long as they are not parallel and a2*b1-a1*b2!=0 it is going to work.
Example
The z line (-2)*(x-3) + (1)*(y-1) = 0 and w line (-1)*(x-3) + (-4)*(y-1) = 0 meet at (3,1). The coefficients are thus a1=-2, b1=1, a2=-1, b2=-4.
The coordinates (x,y)=(2,1) transform to
z = -sqrt((-2)^2+1^2) ((-1) (x-3)+(-4) (y-1))/((-1) 1-(-2) (-4)) = 0.2484
w = sqrt((-1)^2+(-4)^2) ((-2) (x-3)+1 (y-1))/((-2) (-4)-(-1) 1) = 0.9162
With the inverse
x = -1 z/sqrt((-2)^2+1^2)+(-4) w/sqrt((-1)^2+(-4)^2)+3 = 2
y = (-2) z/sqrt((-2)^2+1^2)-(-1) w/sqrt((-1)^2+(-4)^2)+1 = 1
Development
For a line a1*(x-x0)+b1*(y-y0)=0 the direction vector along the line is e1 = [e1x,e1y]= [-b1/sqrt(a1^2+b1^2),a1/sqrt(a1^2+b1^2)]. Similarly for the other line.
The screen coordinates of a local point [z,w] is found by starting at the origin x0, y0 and moving by z along the first line and then by w along the second line. So
x = x0 + e1x*z + e2x*w = x0 -b1/sqrt(a1^2+b1^2)*z - b2/sqrt(a2^2+b2^2)*w
y = y0 + e1y*z + e2y*w = y0 +a1/sqrt(a1^2+b1^2)*z + a2/sqrt(a2^2+b2^2)*w
Now I need to flip the direction of the second line to make it work per the original posting visualization, by reversing the sign of w.
To find z, w from x, y invert the above two equations.
For a square grid the euclidean distance between tile A and B is:
distance = sqrt(sqr(x1-x2)) + sqr(y1-y2))
For an actor constrained to move along a square grid, the Manhattan Distance is a better measure of actual distance we must travel:
manhattanDistance = abs(x1-x2) + abs(y1-y2))
How do I get the manhattan distance between two tiles in a hexagonal grid as illustrated with the red and blue lines below?
I once set up a hexagonal coordinate system in a game so that the y-axis was at a 60-degree angle to the x-axis. This avoids the odd-even row distinction.
(source: althenia.net)
The distance in this coordinate system is:
dx = x1 - x0
dy = y1 - y0
if sign(dx) == sign(dy)
abs(dx + dy)
else
max(abs(dx), abs(dy))
You can convert (x', y) from your coordinate system to (x, y) in this one using:
x = x' - floor(y/2)
So dx becomes:
dx = x1' - x0' - floor(y1/2) + floor(y0/2)
Careful with rounding when implementing this using integer division. In C for int y floor(y/2) is (y%2 ? y-1 : y)/2.
I assume that you want the Euclidean distance in the plane between the centers of two tiles that are identified as you showed in the figure. I think this can be derived from the figure. For any x and y, the vector from the center of tile (x, y) to the center of tile (x + dx, y) is (dx, 0). The vector from the center of tile (x, y) and (x, y + dy) is (-dy / 2, dy*sqrt(3) / 2). A simple vector addition gives a vector of (dx - (dy / 2), dy * sqrt(3) / 2) between (x, y) and (x + dx, y + dy) for any x, y, dx, and dy. The total distance is then the norm of the vector: sqrt((dx - (dy / 2)) ^ 2 + 3 * dy * dy / 4)
If you want the straight-line distance:
double dy = y2 - y1;
double dx = x2 - x1;
// if the height is odd
if ((int)dy & 1){
// whether the upper x coord is displaced left or right
// depends on whether the y1 coordinate is odd
dx += ((y1 & 1) ? -0.5 : 0.5);
}
double dis = sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy);
What I'm trying to say is, if dy is even, it's just a rectangular space. If dy is odd, the position of the upper right corner is 1/2 unit to the left or to the right.
A straight forward answer for this question is not possible. The answer of this question is very much related to how you organize your tiles in the memory. I use odd-q vertical layout and with the following matlab code gives me the right answer always.
function f = offset_distance(x1,y1,x2,y2)
ac = offset_to_cube(x1,y1);
bc = offset_to_cube(x2,y2);
f = cube_distance(ac, bc);
end
function f = offset_to_cube(row,col)
%x = col - (row - (row&1)) / 2;
x = col - (row - mod(row,2)) / 2;
z = row;
y = -x-z;
f = [x,z,y];
end
function f= cube_distance(p1,p2)
a = abs( p1(1,1) - p2(1,1));
b = abs( p1(1,2) - p2(1,2));
c = abs( p1(1,3) - p2(1,3));
f = max([a,b,c]);
end
Here is a matlab testing code
sx = 6;
sy = 1;
for i = 0:7
for j = 0:5
k = offset_distance(sx,sy,i,j);
disp(['(',num2str(sx),',',num2str(sy),')->(',num2str(i),',',num2str(j),')=',num2str(k)])
end
end
For mathematical details of this solution visit: http://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/ . You can get a full hextile library at: http://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/implementation.html
This sounds like a job for the Bresenham line algorithm. You can use that to count the number of segments to get from A to B, and that will tell you the path distance.
If you define the different hexagons as a graph, you can get the shortest path from node A to node B. Since the distance from the hexagon centers is constant, set that as the edge weight.
This will probably be inefficient for large fields though.
This is a common interview question (according to some interview sites) but I can find no normal answers on the Internet - some are wrong and some point to complex theory I expect not to be required in an interview (like the Bresenham algorithm).
The question is simple:
The circle equation is: x2 + y2 = R2.
Given R, draw 0,0-centered circle as best as possible without using any
floating point (no trig, square roots, and so on, only integers)
Bresenham-like algorithms are probably the expected answer, and can be derived without "complex theory". Start from a point (x,y) on the circle: (R,0) and maintain the value d=x^2+y^2-R^2, initially 0. D is the squared distance from the current point to the circle. We increment Y, and decrement X as needed to keep D minimal:
// Discretize 1/8 circle:
x = R ; y = 0 ; d = 0
while x >= y
print (x,y)
// increment Y, D must be updated by (Y+1)^2 - Y^2 = 2*Y+1
d += (2*y+1) ; y++
// now if we decrement X, D will be updated by -2*X+1
// do it only if it keeps D closer to 0
if d >= 0
d += (-2*x+1) ; x--
Honestly, isn't the Midpoint circle algorithm enough? Just mirror it in all quadrants. And by all means no -- unless you're trying to get a job as a window application tester, Bresenham's Line Algorithm isn't complex theory.
From the second method on this page:
for each pixel, evaluate
x2+y2 and see if
it is in the range from
R2-R+1 to R2+R
inclusive. If so, color the pixel on
the screen, and if not, don't.
Further details and explanation given on the aforementioned page, but the crux is that you are looking for pixels that are a distance between R-0.5 and R+0.5 from the origin, so the distance squared is x2+y2 and the threshold distances squared are R2-R+0.25 and R2+R+0.25.
For other methods, Google "draw a circle using integer arithmetic only".
Pretty old question but I will try to provide the end solution with visual tests in python as an alternative to Bresenham's algorithm - the best and the shortest solution for this task. I think this idea also can have a place and perhaps is simpler to understand but needs more code. Someone maybe also end up with this solution.
The idea is based on the following facts:
Every point on circle lies on the same distance to circle central point
A circle contains 4 quadrant which starts and ends in points (r, 0), (2r, r), (r, 2r) and (0, r) if r is radius and central point is in (r, r) point.
A circle is a continues figure and every point can have 8 neighbor points. If move on circle in one direction only three points are interesting for us - 3 lie in opposite direction and 2 are too far from center. For example for point (r, 0) with direction to (2r, r) interesting points will be (r + 1, 1), (r, 1) and (r + 1, 0)
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from itertools import chain
def get_distance(x1, y1, x2, y2):
"""
Calculates squared distance between (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) points
"""
return (x1 - x2) * (x1 - x2) + (y1 - y2) * (y1 - y2);
def get_next_point(x, y, dx, dy, cx, cy, r):
"""
Returns the next circle point base on base point (x, y),
direction (dx, dy), circle central point (cx, cy) and radius r
"""
r2 = r * r
# three possible points
x1, y1 = x + dx, y + dy
x2, y2 = x, y + dy
x3, y3 = x + dx, y
# calculate difference between possible point distances
# with central point and squared radius
dif1 = abs(get_distance(x1, y1, cx, cy) - r2)
dif2 = abs(get_distance(x2, y2, cx, cy) - r2)
dif3 = abs(get_distance(x3, y3, cx, cy) - r2)
# choosing the point with minimum distance difference
diff_min = min(dif1, dif2, dif3)
if diff_min == dif1:
return x1, y1
elif diff_min == dif2:
return x2, y2
else:
return x3, y3
def get_quadrant(bx, by, dx, dy, cx, cy, r):
"""
Returns circle quadrant starting from base point (bx, by),
direction (dx, dy), circle central point (cx, cy) and radius r
"""
x = bx
y = by
# maximum or minimum quadrant point (x, y) values
max_x = bx + dx * r
max_y = by + dy * r
# choosing only quadrant points
while (dx * (x - max_x) <= 0) and (dy * (y - max_y) <= 0):
x, y = get_next_point(x, y, dx, dy, cx, cy, r)
yield x, y
def get_circle(r, cx, cy):
"""
Returns circle points (list) with radius r and center point (cx, cy)
"""
north_east_quadrant = get_quadrant(cx, cy - r, 1, 1, cx, cy, r)
south_east_quadrant = get_quadrant(cx + r, cy, -1, 1, cx, cy, r)
south_west_quadrant = get_quadrant(cx, cy + r, -1, -1, cx, cy, r)
north_west_quadrant = get_quadrant(cy - r, cy, 1, -1, cx, cy, r)
return chain(north_east_quadrant, south_east_quadrant,
south_west_quadrant, north_west_quadrant)
# testing
r = 500
circle_points = get_circle(r, r, r)
for x, y in circle_points:
plt.plot([x], [y], marker='o', markersize=3, color="red")
plt.show()
I will use the Bresenham's Circle drawing algorithm or the Midpoint Circle drawing algorithm. Both produce the same coordinate points. And with the symmetry between the eight octants of the circle, we just need to generate one octant and reflect and copy it to all the other positions.
Here would be my interview answer (no research, this is on the spot)...
Set up two nested for loops that collectively loop over the square defined by {-R, -R, 2R, 2R}. For each pixel, calculate (i^2 + j^2) where i and j are your loop variables. If this is within some tolerance to R^2, then color that pixel black, if not then leave that pixel alone.
I'm too lazy to determine what that tolerance should be. You may need to store the last calculated value to zero-in on which pixel best represents the circle... But this basic method should work pretty well.
Has anyone considered they might be looking for a lateral answer such as "with a compass and pencil" or "use the inside of a roll of sellotape as a template".
Everyone assumes all problems have to be solved with a computer.
You can easily calculate the x in x^2= r^2- y^2 using the first order Taylor approximation
sqrt(u^2 + a) = u + a / 2u
This is a program for that in Mathematica (short, but perhaps not nice)
rad=87; (* Example *)
Calcy[r_,x_]:= (
y2 = rad^2 - x^2;
u = Ordering[Table[ Abs[n^2-y2], {n,1,y2}]] [[1]]; (* get the nearest perfect square*)
Return[ u-(u^2-y2)/(2 u) ]; (* return Taylor approx *)
)
lista = Flatten[Table[{h Calcy[rad, x], j x}, {x, 0, rad}, {h, {-1, 1}}, {j, {-1, 1}}], 2];
ListPlot[Union[lista, Map[Reverse, lista]], AspectRatio -> 1];
This is the result
Not too bad IMHO ... I don't know anything about graphic algorithms ...
What is the best way to draw a line over a black and white (binary) image in MATLAB, provided the start and end coordinates are known?
Please note, I am not trying to add an annotation line. I would like the line to become part of the image.
You may want to look at my answer to an SO question about adding a line to an image matrix. Here's a similar example to the one I have in that answer, which will make a white line running from row and column index (10, 10) to (240, 120):
img = imread('cameraman.tif'); % Load a sample black and white image
x = [10 240]; % x coordinates
y = [10 120]; % y coordinates
nPoints = max(abs(diff(x)), abs(diff(y)))+1; % Number of points in line
rIndex = round(linspace(y(1), y(2), nPoints)); % Row indices
cIndex = round(linspace(x(1), x(2), nPoints)); % Column indices
index = sub2ind(size(img), rIndex, cIndex); % Linear indices
img(index) = 255; % Set the line points to white
imshow(img); % Display the image
And here's the resulting image:
If you are bothered by exceptional cases of other methods here's a bullet-proof method that results in a line:
whose pixels always touch each other during the whole length of the line (pixels are 8-neighbors to each other),
density of the line is not dependent on the additional parameter, but is determined flexibly to accommodate guarantee from the first point.
Inputs (convenient for making function out of this code):
img - matrix that contains image,
x1, y1, x2, y2 - coordinates of the end points of the line to be drawn.
Code:
% distances according to both axes
xn = abs(x2-x1);
yn = abs(y2-y1);
% interpolate against axis with greater distance between points;
% this guarantees statement in the under the first point!
if (xn > yn)
xc = x1 : sign(x2-x1) : x2;
yc = round( interp1([x1 x2], [y1 y2], xc, 'linear') );
else
yc = y1 : sign(y2-y1) : y2;
xc = round( interp1([y1 y2], [x1 x2], yc, 'linear') );
end
% 2-D indexes of line are saved in (xc, yc), and
% 1-D indexes are calculated here:
ind = sub2ind( size(img), yc, xc );
% draw line on the image (change value of '255' to one that you need)
img(ind) = 255;
Here's the example image with three lines drawn on it:
This algorithm offers one approach.
It actually is just a modification on plesiv's answer. I'm drawing thousands of lines over an image and I need to increase the performance. The most improvement made by omitting interp1 calls and using integer variables made it slightly faster. It performs about 18% faster on my PC comparing to plesiv's code.
function img = drawLine(img, x1, y1, x2, y2)
x1=int16(x1); x2=int16(x2); y1=int16(y1); y2=int16(y2);
% distances according to both axes
xn = double(x2-x1);
yn = double(y2-y1);
% interpolate against axis with greater distance between points;
% this guarantees statement in the under the first point!
if (abs(xn) > abs(yn))
xc = x1 : sign(xn) : x2;
if yn==0
yc = y1+zeros(1, abs(xn)+1, 'int16');
else
yc = int16(double(y1):abs(yn/xn)*sign(yn):double(y2));
end
else
yc = y1 : sign(yn) : y2;
if xn==0
xc = x1+zeros(1, abs(yn)+1, 'int16');
else
xc = int16(double(x1):abs(xn/yn)*sign(xn):double(x2));
end
end
% 2-D indexes of line are saved in (xc, yc), and
% 1-D indexes are calculated here:
ind = sub2ind(size(img), yc, xc);
% draw line on the image (change value of '255' to one that you need)
img(ind) = 255;
end
If you have the Computer Vision System Toolbox, you can use insertShape.
I am trying to determine whether a line segment (i.e. between two points) intersects a sphere. I am not interested in the position of the intersection, just whether or not the segment intersects the sphere surface. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the most efficient algorithm for this would be? (I'm wondering if there are any algorithms that are simpler than the usual ray-sphere intersection algorithms, since I'm not interested in the intersection position)
If you are only interested if knowing if it intersects or not then your basic algorithm will look like this...
Consider you have the vector of your ray line, A -> B.
You know that the shortest distance between this vector and the centre of the sphere occurs at the intersection of your ray vector and a vector which is at 90 degrees to this which passes through the centre of the sphere.
You hence have two vectors, the equations of which fully completely defined. You can work out the intersection point of the vectors using linear algebra, and hence the length of the line (or more efficiently the square of the length of the line) and test if this is less than the radius (or the square of the radius) of your sphere.
I don't know what the standard way of doing it is, but if you only want to know IF it intersects, here is what I would do.
General rule ... avoid doing sqrt() or other costly operations. When possible, deal with the square of the radius.
Determine if the starting point is inside the radius of the sphere. If you know that this is never the case, then skip this step. If you are inside, your ray will intersect the sphere.
From here on, your starting point is outside the sphere.
Now, imagine the small box that will fit sphere. If you are outside that box, check the x-direction, y-direction and z-direction of the ray to see if it will intersect the side of the box that your ray starts at. This should be a simple sign check, or comparison against zero. If you are outside the and moving away from it, you will never intersect it.
From here on, you are in the more complicated phase. Your starting point is between the imaginary box and the sphere. You can get a simplified expression using calculus and geometry.
The gist of what you want to do is determine if the shortest distance between your ray and the sphere is less than radius of the sphere.
Let your ray be represented by (x0 + it, y0 + jt, z0 + kt), and the centre of your sphere be at (xS, yS, zS). So, we want to find t such that it would give the shortest of (xS - x0 - it, yS - y0 - jt, zS - z0 - kt).
Let x = xS - x0, y = yX - y0, z = zS - z0, D = magnitude of the vector squared
D = x^2 -2*xit + (i*t)^2 + y^2 - 2*yjt + (j*t)^2 + z^2 - 2*zkt + (k*t)^2
D = (i^2 + j^2 + k^2)t^2 - (xi + yj + zk)*2*t + (x^2 + y^2 + z^2)
dD/dt = 0 = 2*t*(i^2 + j^2 + k^2) - 2*(xi + yj + z*k)
t = (xi + yj + z*k) / (i^2 + j^2 + k^2)
Plug t back into the equation for D = .... If the result is less than or equal the square of the sphere's radius, you have an intersection. If it is greater, then there is no intersection.
This page has an exact solution for this problem. Essentially, you are substituting the equation for the line into the equation for the sphere, then computes the discriminant of the resulting quadratic. The values of the discriminant indicate intersection.
Are you still looking for an answer 13 years later? Here is a complete and simple solution
Assume the following:
the line segment is defined by endpoints as 3D vectors v1 and v2
the sphere is centered at vc with radius r
Ne define the three side lengths of a triangle ABC as:
A = v1-vc
B = v2-vc
C = v1-v2
If |A| < r or |B| < r, then we're done; the line segment intersects the sphere
After doing the check above, if the angle between A and B is acute, then we're done; the line segment does not intersect the sphere.
If neither of these conditions are met, then the line segment may or may not intersect the sphere. To find out, we just need to find H, which is the height of the triangle ABC taking C as the base. First we need φ, the angle between A and C:
φ = arccos( dot(A,C) / (|A||C|) )
and then solve for H:
sin(φ) = H/|A|
===> H = |A|sin(φ) = |A| sqrt(1 - (dot(A,C) / (|A||C|))^2)
and we are done. The result is
if H < r, then the line segment intersects the sphere
if H = r, then the line segment is tangent to the sphere
if H > r, then the line segment does not intersect the sphere
Here that is in Python:
import numpy as np
def unit_projection(v1, v2):
'''takes the dot product between v1, v2 after normalization'''
u1 = v1 / np.linalg.norm(v1)
u2 = v2 / np.linalg.norm(v2)
return np.dot(u1, u2)
def angle_between(v1, v2):
'''computes the angle between vectors v1 and v2'''
return np.arccos(np.clip(unit_projection(v1, v2), -1, 1))
def check_intersects_sphere(xa, ya, za, xb, yb, zb, xc, yc, zc, radius):
'''checks if a line segment intersects a sphere'''
v1 = np.array([xa, ya, za])
v2 = np.array([xb, yb, zb])
vc = np.array([xc, yc, zc])
A = v1 - vc
B = v2 - vc
C = v1 - v2
if(np.linalg.norm(A) < radius or np.linalg.norm(B) < radius):
return True
if(angle_between(A, B) < np.pi/2):
return False
H = np.linalg.norm(A) * np.sqrt(1 - unit_projection(A, C)**2)
if(H < radius):
return True
if(H >= radius):
return False
Note that I have written this so that it returns False when either endpoint is on the surface of the sphere, or when the line segment is tangent to the sphere, because it serves my purposes better.
This might be essentially what user Cruachan suggested. A comment there suggests that other answers are "too elaborate". There might be a more elegant way to implement this that uses more compact linear algebra operations and identities, but I suspect that the amount of actual compute required boils down to something like this. If someone sees somewhere to save some effort please do let us know.
Here is a test of the code. The figure below shows several trial line segments originating from a position (-1, 1, 1) , with a unit sphere at (1,1,1). Blue line segments have intersected, red have not.
And here is another figure which verifies that line segments that stop just short of the sphere's surface do not intersect, even if the infinite ray that they belong to does:
Here is the code that generates the image:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
radius = 1
xc, yc, zc = 1, 1, 1
xa, ya, za = xc-2, yc, zc
nx, ny, nz = 4, 4, 4
xx = np.linspace(xc-2, xc+2, nx)
yy = np.linspace(yc-2, yc+2, ny)
zz = np.linspace(zc-2, zc+2, nz)
n = nx * ny * nz
XX, YY, ZZ = np.meshgrid(xx, yy, zz)
xb, yb, zb = np.ravel(XX), np.ravel(YY), np.ravel(ZZ)
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
for i in range(n):
if(xb[i] == xa): continue
intersects = check_intersects_sphere(xa, ya, za, xb[i], yb[i], zb[i], xc, yc, zc, radius)
color = ['r', 'b'][int(intersects)]
s = [0.3, 0.7][int(intersects)]
ax.plot([xa, xb[i]], [ya, yb[i]], [za, zb[i]], '-o', color=color, ms=s, lw=s, alpha=s/0.7)
u = np.linspace(0, 2 * np.pi, 100)
v = np.linspace(0, np.pi, 100)
x = np.outer(np.cos(u), np.sin(v)) + xc
y = np.outer(np.sin(u), np.sin(v)) + yc
z = np.outer(np.ones(np.size(u)), np.cos(v)) + zc
ax.plot_surface(x, y, z, rstride=4, cstride=4, color='k', linewidth=0, alpha=0.25, zorder=0)
ax.set_xlabel('x')
ax.set_ylabel('y')
ax.set_zlabel('z')
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()
you sorta have to work that the position anyway if you want accuracy. The only way to improve speed algorithmically is to switch from ray-sphere intersection to ray-bounding-box intersection.
Or you could go deeper and try and improve sqrt and other inner function calls
http://wiki.cgsociety.org/index.php/Ray_Sphere_Intersection