How to draw a circle in a log-log plot in R? - r

Question

I have a plot with two logarithmic axes. I'd like to add a circle to a certain position of the plot. I tried to use plotrix, but this does not give options for "log-radius".
# data to plot
x = 10^(-1 * c(5:0))
y = x ^-1.5
#install.packages("plotrix", dependencies=T)
# use require() within functions
library("plotrix")
plot (x, y, log="xy", type="o")
draw.circle(x=1e-2, y=1e2, radius=1e1, col=2)
How can I add a circle to my log-log plot?

Answer 1

As krlmlr suggests, the easiest solution is to slightly modify plotrix::draw.circle(). The log-log coordinate system distorts coordinates of a circle given in the linear scale; to counteract that, you just need to exponentiate the calculated coordinates, as I've done in the lines marked with ## <- in the code below:
library("plotrix")
draw.circle.loglog <-
function (x, y, radius, nv = 100, border = NULL, col = NA, lty = 1,
lwd = 1)
{
xylim <- par("usr")
plotdim <- par("pin")
ymult <- (xylim[4] - xylim[3])/(xylim[2] - xylim[1]) * plotdim[1]/plotdim[2]
angle.inc <- 2 * pi/nv
angles <- seq(0, 2 * pi - angle.inc, by = angle.inc)
if (length(col) < length(radius))
col <- rep(col, length.out = length(radius))
for (circle in 1:length(radius)) {
xv <- exp(cos(angles) * log(radius[circle])) * x[circle] ## <-
yv <- exp(sin(angles) * ymult * log(radius[circle])) * y[circle] ## <-
polygon(xv, yv, border = border, col = col[circle], lty = lty,
lwd = lwd)
}
invisible(list(x = xv, y = yv))
}
# Try it out
x = 10^(-1 * c(5:0))
y = x ^-1.5
plot (x, y, log="xy", type="o")
draw.circle.loglog(x = c(1e-2, 1e-3, 1e-4), y = c(1e2, 1e6, 1e2),
radius = c(2,4,8), col = 1:3)

Answer 2

A work around would be to apply log10 explicitly.
plot (log10(x), log10(y), type="o")
draw.circle(x=log10(1e-2), y=log10(1e2), radius=log10(1e1), col=2)
Edit (using symbols):
plot (x, y, log="xy", type="o",xlim=c(1e-5,1), ylim=c(1,1e8))
par(new=T)
symbols(x=1e-2, y=1e2, circles=1e1, xlim=c(1e-5,1), ylim=c(1,1e8),
xaxt='n', yaxt='n', ann=F, log="xy")

Answer 3

The function draw.circle from the plotrix package looks like that on my system:
> draw.circle
function (x, y, radius, nv = 100, border = NULL, col = NA, lty = 1,
lwd = 1)
{
xylim <- par("usr")
plotdim <- par("pin")
ymult <- (xylim[4] - xylim[3])/(xylim[2] - xylim[1]) * plotdim[1]/plotdim[2]
angle.inc <- 2 * pi/nv
angles <- seq(0, 2 * pi - angle.inc, by = angle.inc)
if (length(col) < length(radius))
col <- rep(col, length.out = length(radius))
for (circle in 1:length(radius)) {
xv <- cos(angles) * radius[circle] + x
yv <- sin(angles) * radius[circle] * ymult + y
polygon(xv, yv, border = border, col = col[circle], lty = lty,
lwd = lwd)
}
invisible(list(x = xv, y = yv))
}
<environment: namespace:plotrix>
What happens here is essentially that the circle is approximated by a polygon of 100 vertices (parameter nv). You can do either of the following:
Create your own version of draw.circle that does the necessary coordinate transformation to "undo" the log transform of the axes.
The function invisibly returns the list of coordinates that are used for plotting.
(If you pass a vector as radius, then only the coordinates of the last circle are returned.) You might be able to apply a transform to those coordinates and call polygon on the result. Pass appropriate values for border, col, lty and/or lwd to hide the polygon drawn by the functions itself.
The first version sounds easier to me. Simply replace the + x by a * x, same for y, inside the for loop, and you're done. Equivalently, for the second version, you subtract x and then multiply by x each coordinate, same for y. EDIT: These transformations are slightly wrong, see Josh's answer for the correct ones.