Quote:Hi everbody,
The Problem:
I have a arc (part of circle, going from min_angle to max_angle) with radius r.
Now I am trying to get the minmal rectangle into which the arc fits. I tried and got stuck in a lot of if-else loops ... and it does not work :(
Anybody a Idea of an aproach to master the task?
Thanks for any thoughts,
Nathan

I think you are going to have two use at least one if statement. As i see it you have two cases: (1) when the angle of the arc is greater than 180 degrees and (2) when it is less than or equal to 180 degrees.


Taking the second case first. One edge of the rectangle will be the end-to-end distance of the arc. If the angle of the arc is theta, then this length is,

2 * r * tan(theta/2).

The other edge of the rectangle is

r * (1 - cos(theta/2)).


The first case. One of the edges of the rectangle lies along the line between the two ends of the arc like in the previous case, only it must extend further. It must extend fair enough to encompass the whole circle, so the length of this edge is 2 * r (i.e. the diameter). The other side is going to be the diameter of the circle less that small slice taken off, which happens to be the same as the height of the arc in the previous case,

2 * r - r * (1 - cos(theta/2)) = r * (1 + cos(theta/2))

Note that theta here is the same as the angle in the previous case. The actual angle of the arc in this case is 360 - theta.


Now, that is one way you can put a rectangle around an arc but I can't claim to know whether it is minimal in any sense. Perhaps someone else has a better solution.


-Josh

Hmm...

Sorry, I'm not sure if I've answered your question: In the subject heading you ask for minimal square, but in your post you ask for a rectangle.


-Josh

Well, I think that works if you assume that the center of the circle is at the origin and the angle of the arc is less than or equal to 180. However, the size of the rectangle using your method will depend upon the absolute position of the arc as well.

For instance, suppose you have an arc from a circle of radius 1.0 centered at the origin that starts at (0,1) proceeds anti-clockwise (or counter-clockwise, whichever you prefer [smile]) to (1,0). Using you method we get a 1-by-1 square. If I rotate this arc 45 degrees about the origin so that it begins at (1/sqrt(2),1/sqrt(2)) and finishes at (-1/sqrt(2),1/sqrt(2)) we get a rectangle that is sqrt(2)-by-(1 - 1/sqrt(2)).


-Josh