How to calculate maximum distance between two points (coordinates) on a XY (2D) plane ?

I am plotting two vectors (x and y), i.e. plot x vs. y.

I want to calculate distance between points which are furthest away from each other. I also need their indices to reference a time stamp.

Using pdist2 I get the pink line, but the black line (annotation) seem to be the actual largest distance.

Answer 1

[Voss]

"seem to be the largest distance"

Seems to be, but it's not. The x-scale and y-scale are not quite the same. Use

axis equal

to view the plot with a 1:1 aspect ratio. When you do that, I bet you'll see that the greatest distance given by pdist2 is correct.

[Viraj Sabane]

Thanks Voss. You are correct, it was an aspect ration problem. I tried axis equal, and the distance looks appropriate now.

Cheers,

Viraj

[Voss]

You're welcome!

[Viraj Sabane]

This makes sense. Thanks for providing an example, it makes it amply clear.

It is a very useful insight.

Cheers,

Viraj