Rotation Group SO(3) - Length and Angle

Length and Angle

Besides just preserving length, rotations also preserve the angles between vectors. This follows from the fact that the standard dot product between two vectors u and v can be written purely in terms of length:

It follows that any length-preserving transformation in R3 preserves the dot product, and thus the angle between vectors. Rotations are often defined as linear transformations that preserve the inner product on R3. This is equivalent to requiring them to preserve length.

Read more about this topic:  Rotation Group SO(3)

Famous quotes containing the words length and/or angle:

    They raise their minds by brooding over and embellishing their sufferings, from one degree of fervid exaltation and dreary greatness to another, till at length they run amuck entirely, and whoever meets them would do well to run them thro’ the body.
    Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)

    The good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency, and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws himself on your part so heartily, that he can get you out of a scrape.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)