|
Direction Cosine
In analytic geometry, the direction cosines (or directional cosines) of a vector are the cosines of the angles between the vector and the three positive coordinate axes. Equivalently, they are the contributions of each component of the basis to a unit vector in that direction. Three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates If is a Euclidean vector in three-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbf v = v_x \mathbf e_x + v_y \mathbf e_y + v_z \mathbf e_z, where are the standard basis in Cartesian notation, then the direction cosines are \begin \alpha &= \cos a = \frac &&= \frac,\\ \beta &= \cos b = \frac &&= \frac,\\ \gamma &= \cos c = \frac &&= \frac. \end It follows that by squaring each equation and adding the results \cos^2 a + \cos^2 b + \cos^2 c = \alpha^ + \beta^ + \gamma^ = 1. Here are the direction cosines and the Cartesian coordinates of the unit vector \tfrac, and are the direction angles of the vector . The direction angles are acute or obtuse angles, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Analytic Geometry
In mathematics, analytic geometry, also known as coordinate geometry or Cartesian geometry, is the study of geometry using a coordinate system. This contrasts with synthetic geometry. Analytic geometry is used in physics and engineering, and also in aviation, Aerospace engineering, rocketry, space science, and spaceflight. It is the foundation of most modern fields of geometry, including Algebraic geometry, algebraic, Differential geometry, differential, Discrete geometry, discrete and computational geometry. Usually the Cartesian coordinate system is applied to manipulate equations for planes, straight lines, and circles, often in two and sometimes three dimensions. Geometrically, one studies the Euclidean plane (two dimensions) and Euclidean space. As taught in school books, analytic geometry can be explained more simply: it is concerned with defining and representing geometric shapes in a numerical way and extracting numerical information from shapes' numerical definitions and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standard Basis
In mathematics, the standard basis (also called natural basis or canonical basis) of a coordinate vector space (such as \mathbb^n or \mathbb^n) is the set of vectors, each of whose components are all zero, except one that equals 1. For example, in the case of the Euclidean plane \mathbb^2 formed by the pairs of real numbers, the standard basis is formed by the vectors \mathbf_x = (1,0),\quad \mathbf_y = (0,1). Similarly, the standard basis for the three-dimensional space \mathbb^3 is formed by vectors \mathbf_x = (1,0,0),\quad \mathbf_y = (0,1,0),\quad \mathbf_z=(0,0,1). Here the vector e''x'' points in the ''x'' direction, the vector e''y'' points in the ''y'' direction, and the vector e''z'' points in the ''z'' direction. There are several common notations for standard-basis vectors, including , , , and . These vectors are sometimes written with a hat to emphasize their status as unit vectors (standard unit vectors). These vectors are a basis in the sense that any othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euler Angles
The Euler angles are three angles introduced by Leonhard Euler to describe the Orientation (geometry), orientation of a rigid body with respect to a fixed coordinate system.Novi Commentarii academiae scientiarum Petropolitanae 20, 1776, pp. 189–207 (E478PDF/ref> They can also represent the orientation of a mobile frame of reference in physics or the orientation of a general Basis (linear algebra), basis in three dimensional linear algebra. Classic Euler angles usually take the inclination angle in such a way that zero degrees represent the vertical orientation. Alternative forms were later introduced by Peter Guthrie Tait and George H. Bryan intended for use in aeronautics and engineering in which zero degrees represent the horizontal position. Chained rotations equivalence Euler angles can be defined by elemental geometry or by composition of rotations (i.e. chained rotations). The geometrical definition demonstrates that three consecutive ''elemental rotations'' (rotatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cartesian Tensor
In geometry and linear algebra, a Cartesian tensor uses an orthonormal basis to represent a tensor in a Euclidean space in the form of components. Converting a tensor's components from one such basis to another is done through an orthogonal transformation. The most familiar coordinate systems are the two-dimensional and three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate systems. Cartesian tensors may be used with any Euclidean space, or more technically, any finite-dimensional vector space over the field of real numbers that has an inner product. Use of Cartesian tensors occurs in physics and engineering, such as with the Cauchy stress tensor and the moment of inertia tensor in rigid body dynamics. Sometimes general curvilinear coordinates are convenient, as in high-deformation continuum mechanics, or even necessary, as in general relativity. While orthonormal bases may be found for some such coordinate systems (e.g. tangent to spherical coordinates), Cartesian tensors may provide consider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dot Product
In mathematics, the dot product or scalar productThe term ''scalar product'' means literally "product with a Scalar (mathematics), scalar as a result". It is also used for other symmetric bilinear forms, for example in a pseudo-Euclidean space. Not to be confused with scalar multiplication. is an algebraic operation that takes two equal-length sequences of numbers (usually coordinate vectors), and returns a single number. In Euclidean geometry, the dot product of the Cartesian coordinates of two Euclidean vector, vectors is widely used. It is often called the inner product (or rarely the projection product) of Euclidean space, even though it is not the only inner product that can be defined on Euclidean space (see ''Inner product space'' for more). It should not be confused with the cross product. Algebraically, the dot product is the sum of the Product (mathematics), products of the corresponding entries of the two sequences of numbers. Geometrically, it is the product of the Euc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basis Vectors
In mathematics, a set of elements of a vector space is called a basis (: bases) if every element of can be written in a unique way as a finite linear combination of elements of . The coefficients of this linear combination are referred to as components or coordinates of the vector with respect to . The elements of a basis are called . Equivalently, a set is a basis if its elements are linearly independent and every element of is a linear combination of elements of . In other words, a basis is a linearly independent spanning set. A vector space can have several bases; however all the bases have the same number of elements, called the dimension of the vector space. This article deals mainly with finite-dimensional vector spaces. However, many of the principles are also valid for infinite-dimensional vector spaces. Basis vectors find applications in the study of crystal structures and frames of reference. Definition A basis of a vector space over a field (such as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orthonormal
In linear algebra, two vectors in an inner product space are orthonormal if they are orthogonal unit vectors. A unit vector means that the vector has a length of 1, which is also known as normalized. Orthogonal means that the vectors are all perpendicular to each other. A set of vectors form an orthonormal set if all vectors in the set are mutually orthogonal and all of unit length. An orthonormal set which forms a basis is called an ''orthonormal basis''. Intuitive overview The construction of orthogonality of vectors is motivated by a desire to extend the intuitive notion of perpendicular vectors to higher-dimensional spaces. In the Cartesian plane, two vectors are said to be ''perpendicular'' if the angle between them is 90° (i.e. if they form a right angle). This definition can be formalized in Cartesian space by defining the dot product and specifying that two vectors in the plane are orthogonal if their dot product is zero. Similarly, the construction of the norm of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obtuse Angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle can refer to a number of concepts relating to the intersection of two straight lines at a point. Formally, an angle is a figure lying in a plane formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the '' vertex'' of the angle. More generally angles are also formed wherever two lines, rays or line segments come together, such as at the corners of triangles and other polygons. An angle can be considered as the region of the plane bounded by the sides. Angles can also be formed by the intersection of two planes or by two intersecting curves, in which case the rays lying tangent to each curve at the point of intersection define the angle. The term ''angle'' is also used for the size, magnitude or quantity of these types of geometric figures and in this context an angle consists of a number and unit of measurement. Angular measure or measure of angle are sometimes used to distinguish between the measurement an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euclidean Space
Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, in Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are ''Euclidean spaces'' of any positive integer dimension ''n'', which are called Euclidean ''n''-spaces when one wants to specify their dimension. For ''n'' equal to one or two, they are commonly called respectively Euclidean lines and Euclidean planes. The qualifier "Euclidean" is used to distinguish Euclidean spaces from other spaces that were later considered in physics and modern mathematics. Ancient Greek geometers introduced Euclidean space for modeling the physical space. Their work was collected by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid in his ''Elements'', with the great innovation of '' proving'' all properties of the space as theorems, by starting from a few fundamental properties, called '' postulates'', which either were considered as evid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euclidean Vector
In mathematics, physics, and engineering, a Euclidean vector or simply a vector (sometimes called a geometric vector or spatial vector) is a geometric object that has magnitude (or length) and direction. Euclidean vectors can be added and scaled to form a vector space. A '' vector quantity'' is a vector-valued physical quantity, including units of measurement and possibly a support, formulated as a '' directed line segment''. A vector is frequently depicted graphically as an arrow connecting an ''initial point'' ''A'' with a ''terminal point'' ''B'', and denoted by \stackrel \longrightarrow. A vector is what is needed to "carry" the point ''A'' to the point ''B''; the Latin word means 'carrier'. It was first used by 18th century astronomers investigating planetary revolution around the Sun. The magnitude of the vector is the distance between the two points, and the direction refers to the direction of displacement from ''A'' to ''B''. Many algebraic operations on real numbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three-dimensional Space
In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values ('' coordinates'') are required to determine the position of a point. Most commonly, it is the three-dimensional Euclidean space, that is, the Euclidean space of dimension three, which models physical space. More general three-dimensional spaces are called '' 3-manifolds''. The term may also refer colloquially to a subset of space, a ''three-dimensional region'' (or 3D domain), a '' solid figure''. Technically, a tuple of numbers can be understood as the Cartesian coordinates of a location in a -dimensional Euclidean space. The set of these -tuples is commonly denoted \R^n, and can be identified to the pair formed by a -dimensional Euclidean space and a Cartesian coordinate system. When , this space is called the three-dimensional Euclidean space (or simply "Euclidean space" when the context is clear). In classical physics, it serve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
