Last data update: 2014.03.03

R: Dumb hypotenuse function.
hypotenuseR Documentation

Dumb hypotenuse function.

Description

Calculate the (Pythagorean) hypotenuse of two numeric vectors using the obvious algorithm.

Usage

  hypotenuse(x, y)

Arguments

x

A numeric vector.

y

A numeric vector.

Value

A numeric vector of the hyptenuse of the inputs.

Note

This algorithm fails when the inputs are very large of very small, making it unsuitable for real-world use.

References

Cleve Moler (MATLAB creator and discoverer of the Moler-Morrison algorithm for calculating hypotenuses) discusses the pro and cons of several algorithms here. http://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/2012/07/30/pythagorean-addition

See Also

hypot

Examples

hypotenuse(5, 12)           #okay
hypotenuse(1e-300, 1e-300)  #fails
hypotenuse(1e300, 1e300)    #fails

Results