Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!gatech!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!pur-phy!cca
From: cca@pur-phy (Charles C. Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Intro graphics texts?
Message-ID: <982@pur-phy>
Date: 31 Jan 88 21:27:16 GMT
Organization: Purdue Univ. Phys Dept, W.Lafayette, IN
Lines: 20

The following is not really a graphics problem, but I'm hoping
to get some pointers on where to look for discussions of this sort
of thing.

Some concentric not-quite-regular polyhedra (2-d polygons extruded in
the third dimension) have a bunch of space points on the planes. The
space points could be stored using integers, using a grid about 10^6 x
10^6 x 10^4.  The goal is to find lines formed by the space points. 

Are there techniques for dealing with things like this using only
integer math?  Actually, that would be ideal, but algorithms using
real math would be appreciated also.  I'm looking for books that
discuss various ways of representing planes and lines (and their
intersections) in 3-d, with regard to efficiency, overflows, etc.

I'm working on a PhD in physics, so math background isn't a problem.
The original problem comes from reconstructing tracks of charged
particles in a cylindrical drift chamber.

Charlie Allen			cca@newton.physics.purdue.edu