How to calculate an angle from three points?

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Lets say you have this:

P1 = (x=2, y=50)
P2 = (x=9, y=40)
P3 = (x=5, y=20)

Assume that P1 is the center point of a circle. It is always the same. I want the angle that is made up by P2 and P3, or in other words the angle that is next to P1. The inner angle to be precise. It will always be an acute angle, so less than -90 degrees.

I thought: Man, that's simple geometry math. But I have looked for a formula for around 6 hours now, and only find people talking about complicated NASA stuff like arccos and vector scalar product stuff. My head feels like it's in a fridge.

Some math gurus here that think this is a simple problem? I don't think the programming language matters here, but for those who think it does: java and objective-c. I need it for both, but haven't tagged it for these.

math geometry algorithm
16 Answers

If you mean the angle that P1 is the vertex of then using the Law of Cosines should work:

arccos((P122 + P132 - P232) / (2 * P12 * P13))

where P12 is the length of the segment from P1 to P2, calculated by

sqrt((P1x - P2x)2 + (P1y - P2y)2)

Lance_Roberts_132950

Basically what you have is two vectors, one vector from P1 to P2 and another from P1 to P3. So all you need is an formula to calculate the angle between two vectors.

Have a look here for a good explanation and the formula.

alt text

user_1125170

If you are thinking of P1 as the center of a circle, you are thinking too complicated. You have a simple triangle, so your problem is solveable with the law of cosines. No need for any polar coordinate tranformation or somesuch. Say the distances are P1-P2 = A, P2-P3 = B and P3-P1 = C:

Angle = arccos ( (B^2-A^2-C^2) / 2AC )

All you need to do is calculate the length of the distances A, B and C. Those are easily available from the x- and y-coordinates of your points and Pythagoras' theorem

Length = sqrt( (X2-X1)^2 + (Y2-Y1)^2 )

Treb_221140

I ran into a similar problem recently, only I needed to differentiate between a positive and negative angles. In case this is of use to anyone, I recommend the code snippet I grabbed from this mailing list about detecting rotation over a touch event for Android:

 @Override
 public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent e) {
    float x = e.getX();
    float y = e.getY();
    switch (e.getAction()) {
    case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:
       //find an approximate angle between them.

       float dx = x-cx;
       float dy = y-cy;
       double a=Math.atan2(dy,dx);

       float dpx= mPreviousX-cx;
       float dpy= mPreviousY-cy;
       double b=Math.atan2(dpy, dpx);

       double diff  = a-b;
       this.bearing -= Math.toDegrees(diff);
       this.invalidate();
    }
    mPreviousX = x;
    mPreviousY = y;
    return true;
 }
Marc_863480

there IS a simple answer for this using high school math..

Let say that you have 3 points

To get angle from point A to B

angle = atan2(A.x - B.x, B.y - A.y)

To get angle from point B to C

angle2 = atan2(B.x - C.x, C.y - B.y)

Answer = 180 + angle2 - angle
If (answer < 0){
    return answer + 360
}else{
    return answer
}

I just used this code in the recent project that I made, change the B to P1.. you might as well remove the "180 +" if you want

user_84250220 
      Atan2        output in degrees
       PI/2              +90
         |                | 
         |                |    
   PI ---.--- 0   +180 ---.--- 0       
         |                |
         |                |
       -PI/2             +270

public static double CalculateAngleFromHorizontal(double startX, double startY, double endX, double endY)
{
    var atan = Math.Atan2(endY - startY, endX - startX); // Angle in radians
    var angleDegrees = atan * (180 / Math.PI);  // Angle in degrees (can be +/-)
    if (angleDegrees < 0.0)
    {
        angleDegrees = 360.0 + angleDegrees;
    }
    return angleDegrees;
}

// Angle from point2 to point 3 counter clockwise
public static double CalculateAngle0To360(double centerX, double centerY, double x2, double y2, double x3, double y3)
{
    var angle2 = CalculateAngleFromHorizontal(centerX, centerY, x2, y2);
    var angle3 = CalculateAngleFromHorizontal(centerX, centerY, x3, y3);
    return (360.0 + angle3 - angle2)%360;
}

// Smaller angle from point2 to point 3
public static double CalculateAngle0To180(double centerX, double centerY, double x2, double y2, double x3, double y3)
{
    var angle = CalculateAngle0To360(centerX, centerY, x2, y2, x3, y3);
    if (angle > 180.0)
    {
        angle = 360 - angle;
    }
    return angle;
}

}

user_70211960
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