The gradient and the Hessian of the distance between point and triangle in 3D (Q2287494)

Summary: Computation of the distance between point and triangle in 3D is a common task in numerical analysis. The input values of the algorithm are coordinates of three points of the triangle and one point from which the distance is determined. An existing algorithm is extended to compute the gradient and the Hessian of that distance with respect to coordinates of involved points. Derivation of exact expressions for gradient and Hessian is presented, and numerical accuracy is evaluated for various cases. The algorithm has \(O(1)\) time and space complexity. The included open-source code may be used in applications where derivatives of point-triangle distance are required.