the cedar ledge

Finding a Line Which Contains Two Points

Date: May 20 2020

Summary: An explanation on how to find a line that fits to two points

Keywords: ##zettel #algebra #line #point #slope #formula #archive

Bibliography

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Table of Contents

    1. Algorithm
    2. Example
  1. How To Cite
  2. References
  3. Discussion:

Algorithm

Let p1=(x1,y1)p_{1} = (x_{1}, y_{1}), p2=(x2,y2)p_{2} = (x_{2}, y_{2}), p=(xp,yp)p = (x_{p}, y_{p}) where p1p_{1} and p2p_{2} are two points of interest and pp is either p1p_{1} or p2p_{2}. The algorithm for determining the line that contains points p1p_{1} and p2p_{2} utilizes the Point-Slope Formula:

y2−y1=m(x2−x1) y_{2} - y_{1} = m(x_{2} - x_{1})

Can be rewritten such that

m=y2−y1x2−x1 m = \frac{ y_{2} - y_{1}}{x_{2} - x_{1}}

To define the slope of the line in question. To generalize this to a generic solution, one reevaluates for the point slope formula using yy and xx as general terms:

y−yp=m(x−xp) y - y_{p} = m(x - x_{p})

To produce the final generic equation, reorganizing yields:

y(x)=x⋅(y2−y1)x2−x1−xp⋅(y2−y1)x2−x1+yp y(x) = \frac{x \cdot \left( y_{2} - y_{1} \right)}{x_{2} - x_{1}} - \frac{x_{p} \cdot \left( y_{2} - y_{1} \right)}{x_{2} - x_{1}} + y_{p}

Example

using Plots
gr()

# Utilizing an implicit return from the generic function
y(x, x_1, y_1, x_2, y_2) = x .* (y_2 - y_1) ./ (x_2 - x_1) .- x_1 .* (y_2 - y_1) ./ (x_2 - x_1) .+ y_1

input = -5:5
output = y(input, 2, -1, 0, 3)

plot(input,
     output, 
     framestyle=:zerolines,
     label="Fitted Line",
     title="Line Fitting Two Points",
     xlim=(-5, 5),
     ylim=(-5, 5)
     )
scatter!((2, -1), label="Point 1", marker=5)
scatter!((0, 3), label="Point 2", marker=5)

output image

How To Cite

Zelko, Jacob. Finding a Line Which Contains Two Points. https://jacobzelko.com/05202020224416-line-two-points. May 20 2020.

References

Discussion:

CC BY-SA 4.0 Jacob Zelko. Last modified: May 19, 2024. Website built with Franklin.jl and the Julia programming language.