I have an arc of a circle, and I have some other point in space (this might lie on the arc or it might not). I am looking for a formula that will compute the closest point on the arc to the other point. I also need to be able to get the distance from the start of the arc to this closest point.
what I know about the arc is: (1) the circle centre, (2) the angle of the beginning of the arc, (3) the arc angle, (4) the circle radius, (5) begin and end points of the arc on the circle circumference, (6) the direction the arc is going (i.e. Clockwise or Counter-clockwise)
what I know about the other point is: (1) its position