Shoelace formula

The shoelace formula, shoelace algorithm, or shoelace method (also known as Gauss's area formula and the surveyor's formula) is a mathematical algorithm to determine the area of a simple polygon whose vertices are described by their Cartesian coordinates in the plane. It is called the shoelace formula because of the constant cross-multiplying for the coordinates making up the polygon, like threading shoelaces. It has applications in surveying and forestry, among other areas. The formula was described by Albrecht Ludwig Friedrich Meister (1724–1788) in 1769 and is based on the trapezoid formula which was described by Carl Friedrich Gauss and C.G.J. Jacobi. The triangle form of the area formula can be considered to be a special case of Green's theorem. The area formula can also be applied to self-overlapping polygons since the meaning of area is still clear even though self-overlapping polygons are not generally simple. Furthermore, a self-overlapping polygon can have multiple "interpretations" but the Shoelace formula can be used to show that the polygon's area is the same regardless of the interpretation. Given: A planar simple polygon with a positively oriented (counter clock wise) sequence of points in a Cartesian coordinate system. For the simplicity of the formulas below it is convenient to set . The formulas: The area of the given polygon can be expressed by a variety of formulas, which are connected by simple operations (see below): If the polygon is negatively oriented, then the result of the formulas is negative. In any case is the sought area of the polygon. The trapezoid formula sums up a sequence of oriented areas of trapezoids with as one of its four edges (see below): The triangle formula sums up the oriented areas of triangles : The determinant formulas are the base of the popular shoelace formula, which is a scheme, that optimizes the calculation of the sum of the 2×2-Determinants by hand: A particularly concise statement of the formula can be given in terms of the exterior algebra.

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In mathematics and physics, the centroid, also known as geometric center or center of figure, of a plane figure or solid figure is the arithmetic mean position of all the points in the surface of the figure. The same definition extends to any object in n-dimensional Euclidean space. In geometry, one often assumes uniform mass density, in which case the barycenter or center of mass coincides with the centroid. Informally, it can be understood as the point at which a cutout of the shape (with uniformly distributed mass) could be perfectly balanced on the tip of a pin.

Tetrahedron

In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the ordinary convex polyhedra. The tetrahedron is the three-dimensional case of the more general concept of a Euclidean simplex, and may thus also be called a 3-simplex. The tetrahedron is one kind of pyramid, which is a polyhedron with a flat polygon base and triangular faces connecting the base to a common point.

Area

Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or plane area refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while surface area refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-dimensional object. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat.

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By a polygonization of a finite point set S in the plane we understand a simple polygon having S as the set of its vertices. Let B and R be sets of blue and red points, respectively, in the plane such that is in general position, and the convex hull of B c ...

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