Distance from any point to a logarithmic spiral

124 Views Asked by At

I am trying to find the distance function of a point and a logarithmic spiral.

All I could find about that is this link, but it is based on the assumption that the closest point on the spiral must be on a line going through the point and the origin, which is from what I've seen not true.

Where should I start to derive this ?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

If the spiral makes angle $\alpha$ to radial line,(draw the differential triangle representing infinitely small right triangle)

$$ dr = \cot \alpha . r. d\theta $$

Integrate to get logs with initial condition $ \theta=0, r= r_i $

$$ \log \frac{r}{r_i} = \cot \alpha . \theta \, \rightarrow r= r_i.e^{\cot \alpha . \theta} $$

which is log spiral with radial distances growing exponentially with $\theta.$