# Traversal and distance

    library(a5R)

## Selecting cells around a point

Pick an origin cell and use `a5_spherical_cap()` to grab every cell whose centre falls within a given great-circle radius. The result is compacted, so pass it through `a5_uncompact()` for a uniform-resolution grid.

    origin <- a5_lonlat_to_cell(35, 55, resolution = 14)

    disk <- a5_grid_disk(origin, k = 20, vertex = FALSE)
    disk_vertex <- a5_grid_disk(origin, k = 20, vertex = TRUE)
    cap_compact <- a5_spherical_cap(origin, radius = 5000)
    cap <- a5_uncompact(cap_compact, resolution = 14)

`a5_grid_disk()` selects cells by hop count rather than metric distance. With `vertex = FALSE` (default) only edge-sharing neighbours are traversed (4-connected), producing a diamond shape. Setting `vertex = TRUE` includes corner-sharing neighbours too (8-connected), giving a squarer footprint.

## Distance heatmap

Compute the distance from the origin to every cell in the cap (or disk) and visualise it as a colour gradient.

    dcap <- a5_cell_distance(origin, cap, units = "km")
    dcap_compact <- a5_cell_distance(origin, cap_compact, units = "km")
    ddisk <- a5_cell_distance(origin, disk, units = "km")
    ddisk_vertex <- a5_cell_distance(origin, disk_vertex, units = "km")

    pal <- hcl.colors(256, "Inferno")

    oldpar <- par(mfrow = c(2, 2), mar = c(2, 2, 2, 1))
    for (info in list(
      list(s = disk, d = ddisk, lab = "Grid disk (edges)"),
      list(s = disk_vertex, d = ddisk_vertex, lab = "Grid disk (vertices)"),
      list(s = cap_compact, d = dcap_compact, lab = "Spherical cap (compact)"),
      list(s = cap, d = dcap, lab = "Spherical cap")
    )) {
      brk <- seq(0, max(as.numeric(info$d)), length.out = 257)
      cols <- pal[findInterval(as.numeric(info$d), brk, all.inside = TRUE)]

      plot(a5_cell_to_boundary(info$s), col = cols, border = NA, asp = 1,
           main = info$lab)
      plot(a5_cell_to_boundary(origin), border = "#ffffffff", add = TRUE)
    }

Distance radiates smoothly from the centre — cells near the origin are dark, cells at the rim are bright. The origin cell is shown with a white border for reference.

## Distance methods

a5R supports three distance methods: haversine (great-circle), geodesic (WGS84 ellipsoid via Karney 2013), and rhumb (loxodrome / constant-bearing). For short distances they are nearly identical; differences grow with distance.

    wide_origin <- a5_lonlat_to_cell(35, 55, resolution = 8)
    wide_cap <- a5_uncompact(
      a5_spherical_cap(wide_origin, radius = 500000),
      resolution = 8
    )

    hav <- a5_cell_distance(wide_origin, wide_cap, units = "m", method = "haversine")
    geo <- a5_cell_distance(wide_origin, wide_cap, units = "m", method = "geodesic")

    diff_m <- as.numeric(geo - hav)
    brk <- seq(min(diff_m), max(diff_m), length.out = 257)
    cols <- pal[findInterval(diff_m, brk, all.inside = TRUE)]

    oldpar <- par(no.readonly = TRUE)
    layout(matrix(c(1, 2), nrow = 1), widths = c(4, 1))
    par(mar = c(2, 2, 2, 1))
    plot(a5_cell_to_boundary(wide_cap), col = cols, border = NA, asp = 1,
         main = "Geodesic \u2212 Haversine (m)")

    par(mar = c(9, 0, 9, 9))
    image(1, seq(min(diff_m), max(diff_m), length.out = 256),
          t(seq_along(pal)), col = pal, axes = FALSE, xlab = "", ylab = "")
    axis(4, las = 1)

The difference is near zero at the centre and grows to ~1675 m at the rim (~500 km away).