Re: Rail deserts

On Thu, 1 Nov 2007 17:26:38 +0000, Clive D. W. Feather wrote:

In article <cmdssep72kdm.fys9gktrs182.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>, Jarle H Knudsen
<jhkn@xxxxxxxxx> writes
1 for each grid cell
2 best := infinity
3 for each station on the list
4 d := (distance from station to cell) squared
5 if d < best then best := d
6 cell value := sqrt (best)

Why does the distance need to be squared in line 4?

What is the formula for distance between two points on a Cartesian grid?

d = sqrt((x2 - x1)^2 + (y2 - y1)^2).

But that does not explain (to me) why you do d^2 in line 4.

--
jhk
.