In mathematics, the convex hull or convex envelope for a set of points X in a real vector space V is the minimal convex set containing X. The convex hull also has an linear-algebraic characterization: The convex hull of X is the set of all convex combinations of points in X.

In computational geometry, a basic problem is finding the convex hull for a given finite set of points in the plane.

Contents

• 1 Existence of the convex hull
• 2 Algebraic characterization
  • 2.1 Minkowski addition and convex hulls
• 3 Convex hull of a finite point set
• 4 Computation of convex hulls
  • 4.1 Intuitive picture
• 5 Relations to other geometric structures
• 6 Applications
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 External links