Dot Product

In this article we combine some Linear Algebra with a bit of geometry to make some real-world calculations about finding the nearest line to two or more points on a map. We’ve also implemented a tool that uses those calculations to fit a great circle to two or more points on the globe. Check it out!

The dot product is so fundamental to linear algebra that it’s easy to take for granted that it works. Here we take a quick look at some of it’s potential by showing how it can be used to calculate the angle between two vectors.