Seglen

Seglen is a term used in mathematics and computer science to denote the length of a line segment, or the length of a segment within a polyline, polygonal chain, or mesh. It is commonly used as a variable name or function in geometry and algorithms. In Euclidean space, the length of a segment with endpoints P and Q is the Euclidean distance between P and Q, often written as seglen(P, Q) = ||Q - P||. In two-dimensional coordinates, for P=(x1, y1) and Q=(x2, y2), seglen = sqrt((x2 - x1)^2 + (y2 - y1)^2); in three dimensions, seglen = sqrt((x2 - x1)^2 + (y2 - y1)^2 + (z2 - z1)^2).

In many applications, seglen is computed for each segment of a polyline or polygonal mesh and used to derive a total path length by summing the lengths of consecutive segments: L = sum over i seglen(P_{i-1}, P_i). Seglen thresholds can control sampling or refinement; segments longer than a threshold may be subdivided to improve accuracy, while segments shorter than a minimum length may be merged.

Seglen is also used in algorithms for routing, clustering, and mesh simplification, where segment length influences decisions about connectivity, refinement, or pruning. In data structures and code, seglen is often stored as a numeric value associated with an edge or segment.

See also: Euclidean distance, length, polyline, mesh, segment.