Finding maximum distance between two points in a list (scheme)

Question

I\'m currently trying to write a function from a list of points that returns the distance from a point p to a point in my point list that is farthest away from p. My list of poi

Answer 1

Compute the distance to the car of points. Either that distance is the maximum or the maximum from the cdr of points is. Result is a simple recursive algorithm traversing the list of points.

(define (max-distance-p p points)
  (if (null? points)
      0
      (max (distance p (car points))
           (max-distance-p p (cdr points)))))

The 0 is returned if you pass in points as an empty list; that might be a bit questionable. If so:

(define (max-distance-p p points)
  (assert (not (null? points)))
  (if (null? (cdr points))
      (distance p (car points))
      (max (distance p (car points))
           (max-distance-p p (cdr points)))))