maths.minkowski_distance

Functions

minkowski_distance(→ float)

This function calculates the Minkowski distance for a given order between

Module Contents

maths.minkowski_distance.minkowski_distance(point_a: list[float], point_b: list[float], order: int) → float

This function calculates the Minkowski distance for a given order between two n-dimensional points represented as lists. For the case of order = 1, the Minkowski distance degenerates to the Manhattan distance. For order = 2, the usual Euclidean distance is obtained.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minkowski_distance

Note: due to floating point calculation errors the output of this function may be inaccurate.

>>> minkowski_distance([1.0, 1.0], [2.0, 2.0], 1)
2.0
>>> minkowski_distance([1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0], [5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0], 2)
8.0
>>> import numpy as np
>>> bool(np.isclose(5.0, minkowski_distance([5.0], [0.0], 3)))
True
>>> minkowski_distance([1.0], [2.0], -1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
ValueError: The order must be greater than or equal to 1.
>>> minkowski_distance([1.0], [1.0, 2.0], 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
ValueError: Both points must have the same dimension.