Does a point lie inside a polygon

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA)

OSTI ID:5433103

Milgram, M S

A superficially simple problem in computational geometry is that of determining whether a query point P lies in the interior of a polygon if it lies in the polygon's plane. Answering this question is often required when tracking particles in a Monte Carlo program; it is asked frequently and an efficient algorithm is crucial. Littlefield has recently rediscovered Shimrat's algorithm, while in separate works, Wooff, Preparata and Shamos and Mehlhorn, as well as Yamaguchi, give other algorithms. A practical algorithm answering this question when the polygon's plane is skewed in space is not immediately evident from most of these methods. Additionally, all but one fails when two sides extend to infinity (open polygons). In this paper the author review the above methods and present a new, efficient algorithm, valid for all convex polygons, open or closed, and topologically connected in n-dimensional space (n {ge} 2).

• OSTI ID: 5433103
• Report Number(s): CONF-881011--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA) Journal Volume: 57
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220100* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Theory & Calculation
ALGORITHMS
EFFICIENCY
FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
GEOMETRY
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
MATHEMATICS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PHYSICS
REACTOR PHYSICS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS