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exceleuclidean-distance
Proposition Joe
Proposition Joe

Reputation: 481

Formula for calculating Euclidian direction in Excel

I am calculating Euclidian distance between points in an Excel application, and also need to be able to specify the direction of the difference in two-dimensional location for each pair of points.

Does anyone know how to implement this in Excel?

Below is a simplified illustration of my current Euclidian distance calculation. I have two points, and calculate how far apart Point1 is from Point2. But I would also like to find the direction (in degrees preferably) between Point1 and Point2.

illustration of simplified Euclidian distance calculation

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2590

Answers (1)

John Coleman
John Coleman

Reputation: 52008

For direction, you could use the angle that the vector from point one to point two makes with respect to the positive x axis:

=DEGREES(ATAN2(B3-B2,C3-C2))

this will return a number between -180 and +180 degrees. The ATAN2 function is given by ATAN2(x,y) = arctan(y/x) with the refinement that it returns pi/2 rather than a division by 0 error if x = 0 and also gives an answer in the appropriate quadrant.

Upvotes: 3

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