Method: Geocoder::Calculations#geographic_center

Defined in:
lib/geocoder/calculations.rb

#geographic_center(points) ⇒ Object

Compute the geographic center (aka geographic midpoint, center of gravity) for an array of geocoded objects and/or [lat,lon] arrays (can be mixed). Any objects missing coordinates are ignored. Follows the procedure documented at www.geomidpoint.com/calculation.html.



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# File 'lib/geocoder/calculations.rb', line 167

def geographic_center(points)

  # convert objects to [lat,lon] arrays and convert degrees to radians
  coords = points.map{ |p| to_radians(extract_coordinates(p)) }

  # convert to Cartesian coordinates
  x = []; y = []; z = []
  coords.each do |p|
    x << Math.cos(p[0]) * Math.cos(p[1])
    y << Math.cos(p[0]) * Math.sin(p[1])
    z << Math.sin(p[0])
  end

  # compute average coordinate values
  xa, ya, za = [x,y,z].map do |c|
    c.inject(0){ |tot,i| tot += i } / c.size.to_f
  end

  # convert back to latitude/longitude
  lon = Math.atan2(ya, xa)
  hyp = Math.sqrt(xa**2 + ya**2)
  lat = Math.atan2(za, hyp)

  # return answer in degrees
  to_degrees [lat, lon]
end