Perpendicular on a line from a given point

Question

How can I draw a perpendicular on a line segment from a given point? My line segment is defined as (x1, y1), (x2, y2), If I draw a perpendicular from a point (x3,y3) and it meets to line on point (x4,y4). I want to find out this (x4,y4).

Answer 1

From wiki:

In algebra, for any linear equation y=mx + b, the perpendiculars will all have a slope of (-1/m), the opposite reciprocal of the original slope. It is helpful to memorize the slogan "to find the slope of the perpendicular line, flip the fraction and change the sign." Recall that any whole number a is itself over one, and can be written as (a/1)

To find the perpendicular of a given line which also passes through a particular point (x, y), solve the equation y = (-1/m)x + b, substituting in the known values of m, x, and y to solve for b.

The slope of the line, m, through (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) is m = (y1 - y2) / (x1 - x2)

Answer 2

Find out the slopes for both the lines, say slopes are m1 and m2 then m1*m2=-1 is the condition for perpendicularity.

Answer 3

Matlab function code for the following problem

function Pr=getSpPoint(Line,Point)
% getSpPoint(): find Perpendicular on a line segment from a given point
x1=Line(1,1);
y1=Line(1,2);
x2=Line(2,1);
y2=Line(2,1);
x3=Point(1,1);
y3=Point(1,2);

px = x2-x1;
py = y2-y1;
dAB = px*px + py*py;

u = ((x3 - x1) * px + (y3 - y1) * py) / dAB;
x = x1 + u * px;
y = y1 + u * py;

Pr=[x,y];

end

Answer 4

You will often find that using vectors makes the solution clearer...

Here is a routine from my own library:

public class Line2  {

Real2 from;
Real2 to;
Vector2 vector;
Vector2 unitVector = null;


    public Real2 getNearestPointOnLine(Real2 point) {
        unitVector = to.subtract(from).getUnitVector();
        Vector2 lp = new Vector2(point.subtract(this.from));
        double lambda = unitVector.dotProduct(lp);
        Real2 vv = unitVector.multiplyBy(lambda);
        return from.plus(vv);
    }

}

You will have to implement Real2 (a point) and Vector2 and dotProduct() but these should be simple:

The code then looks something like:

Point2 p1 = new Point2(x1, y1);
Point2 p2 = new Point2(x2, y2);
Point2 p3 = new Point2(x3, y3);
Line2 line = new Line2(p1, p2);
Point2 p4 = getNearestPointOnLine(p3);

The library (org.xmlcml.euclid) is at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cml/

and there are unit tests which will exercise this method and show you how to use it.

@Test
public final void testGetNearestPointOnLine() {
    Real2 p = l1112.getNearestPointOnLine(new Real2(0., 0.));
    Real2Test.assertEquals("point", new Real2(0.4, -0.2), p, 0.0000001);
}

Answer 5

This is mostly a duplicate of Arnkrishn's answer. I just wanted to complete his section with a complete Mathematica code snippet:

m = (y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1)
eqn1 = y - y3 == -(1/m)*(x - x3)
eqn2 = y - y1 == m*(x - x1)
Solve[eqn1 && eqn2, {x, y}]

Answer 6

I agree with peter.murray.rust, vectors make the solution clearer:

// first convert line to normalized unit vector
double dx = x2 - x1;
double dy = y2 - y1;
double mag = sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy);
dx /= mag;
dy /= mag;

// translate the point and get the dot product
double lambda = (dx * (x3 - x1)) + (dy * (y3 - y1));
x4 = (dx * lambda) + x1;
y4 = (dy * lambda) + y1;