This not work out so well. Trying to solve for the x-y plane results in:
atan((44.0-99.0)/(-16.0-32
0.853254986253752 degrees.
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Question
Calculate heading between two points
Assume you are in Cartesian space at coordinates {32, 99, -6}. You are traveling to coordinates {-16, 44, 36}. There are two headings (bearings/directions) to find, the angle at which you must move on the x and y axis towards your destination and the angle at which you must move up or down on the z axis to reach your destination. Angles for the x,y axes range from 0 to 360 degrees, whereas angles for the z axis range from 90 degrees (straight up) to -90 degrees (straight down). The distance between the previous two coordinates is 84.219 units. Assuming you have no acceleration (you move at 1 unit/second, there is no speeding up or slowing down), at which angles do I need to move on the x,y axis and which angle on the z axis if I move forwards 84.219 units and how do you calculate this?
Am I right in assuming I need to convert to spherical coordinates? Thanks!
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Answers
First of all, with the values :
x1=99.0 y1=32.0
x2=44.0 y2=-16.0
you should get :
arctan((44.0-99.0)/(-16.0-
Which is off by 180 degrees of what it should be (228.888 degrees). The reason is that arctan generates values between -90 and 90 degrees.
You can add a simple check for that though, something like :
angle = arctan((y2-y1)/(x2-x1))
if (x2-x1) < 0 then add 180 to angle
if angle < 0 then add 360 to angle
Note that arctan will also have trouble if x2 is equal to x1, so :
if x2 equal to x1 then
if (y2-y1) >= 0 then angle = 90
else angle = -90
else
angle = arctan((y2-y1)/(x2-x1))
if (x2-x1) < 0 then add 180 to angle
if angle < 0 then add 360 to angle
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by: Infinity08Posted on 2008-02-18 at 01:27:07ID: 20918633
>> Am I right in assuming I need to convert to spherical coordinates?
You could, but you don't need to.
Two points (x1,y1,z1) and (x2,y2,z2) gives :
1) angle in X-Y plane : arctan((y2-y1)/(x2-x1))
2) "vertical" angle : arctan((z2-z1)/(sqrt((y2-y
Verify these formulas before using, as I just quickly formed them in my head ;)