Convex Hulls

I have a book on algorithms that discusses convex hulls. What I would like to know is what convex hulls are used for and what applications use them. There is no mention of this in the book so I am somewhat baffled by the use of these algorthims (other than sorting algorthims) in which no practical examples have been given. TIA.

I'll let you in on a little known secret. On the internet, there are tools called "search engines". You put in what you want to look up, and they return links to pages pertaining to that information. Here's an example below:

http://www.google.com/search?q=convex+hulls

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Originally Posted by arundhatibakshi

I have a book on algorithms that discusses convex hulls. What I would like to know is what convex hulls are used for and what applications use them. There is no mention of this in the book so I am somewhat baffled by the use of these algorthims (other than sorting algorthims) in which no practical examples have been given. TIA.

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I appreciate your sage advice, but I am quite intimate with google. Nontheless, searches on convex hulls seem to lead to me to explanations that only mathematicians can understand and being a high school student, leaves me at something of a loss.

Google also lead me to this site, which apparently has people which tell me to go back to google, which I assume is a textbook example of recursive non-help.

Thank you so much for your letting me know that I should go elsewhrere than a C-site to find the answer to a simple C-question.

I will not bother your sagacity again.

Yours humbly,
A beginner.

It isn't a "C question". It has nothing to do with the C language. It isn't at all language specific.


Quzah.

It looks to me like an algorithm to put together 2 points based on the hull itself. It adds to the hull based on a vertex. Seems logical that this could be used in game programming.

Indeed, my reply may have been a little less sarcastic if you (a) pointed out that you had already tried google and (b) asked a question that had anything remotely to do with C.

While I'm sure that convex hull algorithms are frequently implemented in C, this doesn't mean that they are related.

Further, if you look at http://www.google.com/search?q=conve...s+applications, a slight variant on my above suggestion, the fourth link goes into quite some detail on one such use of them.

Also, for your own benefit as I'm sure you will get similar responses on other forums when you ask such a question, I suggest you have a read of http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html, especially the parts explaining why and how you should indicate that you've already made an effort to search common resources.

There are plenty of people here who ask questions like the one you asked, and I'm not going to assume they've actually made an effort to use a search engine unless they explicitly mention it.

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Originally Posted by arundhatibakshi

I have a book on algorithms that discusses convex hulls. What I would like to know is what convex hulls are used for and what applications use them. There is no mention of this in the book so I am somewhat baffled by the use of these algorthims (other than sorting algorthims) in which no practical examples have been given. TIA.

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Geometry > Computational Geometry > Convex Hulls v
Recreational Mathematics > Interactive Entries >

LiveGraphics3D Applets

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the separated line is the important part.
convex hulls are used in 3D graphics

from MathWorld