Orientation of A Space
The above described geometrical meaning of the word orientation should not be confused with its meaning in the context of linear algebra, where a different orientation means a change to the mirror image by a reflection.
Formally, for any dimension, the orientation of the image of an object under a direct isometry with respect to that object is the linear part of that isometry. Thus it is an element of SO(n), or, put differently, the corresponding coset in E+(n) / T, where T is the translation group.
Read more about this topic: Orientation (geometry)
Famous quotes containing the words orientation and/or space:
“Every orientation presupposes a disorientation.”
—Hans Magnus Enzensberger (b. 1929)
“But alas! I never could keep a promise. I do not blame myself for this weakness, because the fault must lie in my physical organization. It is likely that such a very liberal amount of space was given to the organ which enables me to make promises, that the organ which should enable me to keep them was crowded out. But I grieve not. I like no half-way things. I had rather have one faculty nobly developed than two faculties of mere ordinary capacity.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)