CCL: calculating area of a ring

 Sent to CCL by: Michel Petitjean [ptitjean,+,itodys.jussieu.fr]
 To: <chemistry^^^ccl.net>
 Subject: CCL: Re: calculating area of a ring
 Sent to CCL by: "Mills, Nancy S." [nmills_._trinity.edu]
 > Is there a program that uses cartesian coordinates (effectively x,y
 coordinates) to calculate the area of a flat ring? I am interested in rings that
 are not necessarily perfect polygons.
 Assuming that your are working in the plane, and that the polygon is convex,
 you should download from the web a planar convex hull algorithm.
 Once known the convex hull, calculating the area is trivial:
 use the the mean center of the vertices of the hull, and add the
 areas of the triangles.
 If your are working in the 3D space, download the freware RADI:
 http://petitjeanmichel.free.fr/itoweb.petitjean.freeware.html#RADI
 (calculates surface and volume of the convex hull, and some shape
 coefficients).
 Michel Petitjean,                     Email: petitjean^^^itodys.jussieu.fr
 ITODYS (CNRS, UMR 7086)                      ptitjean^^^ccr.jussieu.fr
 1 rue Guy de la Brosse                Phone: +33 (0)1 44 27 48 57
 75005 Paris, France.                  FAX  : +33 (0)1 44 27 68 14
 http://petitjeanmichel.free.fr/itoweb.petitjean.html