Rotationofanobjectintwo

dimensionsaroundapointO.
Rotation(mathematics)
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia
Rotationinmathematicsisaconceptoriginatingingeometry.
Anyrotationisamotionofacertainspacethatpreservesatleast
onepoint.Itcandescribe,forexample,themotionofarigidbody
aroundafixedpoint.Arotationisdifferentfromothertypesof
motions:translations,whichhavenofixedpoints,and
(hyperplane)reflections,eachofthemhavinganentire(n 1)
dimensionalflatoffixedpointsinandimensionalspace.
Mathematically,arotationisamap.Allrotationsaboutafixed
pointformagroupundercompositioncalledtherotationgroup
(ofaparticularspace).Butinmechanicsand,moregenerally,in
physics,thisconceptisfrequentlyunderstoodasacoordinate
transformation(importantly,atransformationofanorthonormal
basis),becauseforanymotionofabodythereisaninverse
transformationwhichifappliedtotheframeofreferenceresultsin
thebodybeingatthesamecoordinates.Forexampleintwodimensionsrotatingabodyclockwiseabouta
pointkeepingtheaxesfixedisequivalenttorotatingtheaxescounterclockwiseaboutthesamepointwhile
thebodyiskeptfixed.Thesetwotypesofrotationarecalledactiveandpassivetransformations.
Contents
1Relateddefinitionsandterminology
2Definitionsandrepresentations
2.1InEuclideangeometry
2.2Linearandmultilinearalgebraformalism
2.2.1Twodimensions
2.2.2Threedimensions
2.2.3Quaternions
2.2.4Furthernotes
2.2.5Morealternativestothematrixformalism
2.3InnonEuclideangeometries
2.4Inrelativity
2.5Discreterotations
3Importance
4Generalizations
5Seealso
6Footnotes
7References
Aplanerotationaroundapoint
followedbyanotherrotationarounda
differentpointresultsinatotal
motionwhichiseitherarotation(as
inthispicture),oratranslation.
Relateddefinitionsandterminology
TherotationgroupisaLiegroupofrotationsaboutafixedpoint.This(common)fixedpointiscalledthe
centerofrotationandisusuallyidentifiedwiththeorigin.Therotationgroupisapointstabilizerina
broadergroupof(orientationpreserving)motions.
Foraparticularrotation:
Theaxisofrotationisalineofitsfixedpoints.Theyexistonlyinn > 2.
Theplaneofrotationisaplanethatisinvariantundertherotation.Unliketheaxis,itspointsarenot
fixedthemselves.Theaxis(whereispresent)andtheplaneofarotationareorthogonal.
Arepresentationofrotationsisaparticularformalism,eitheralgebraicorgeometric,usedtoparametrizea
rotationmap.Thismeaningissomehowinversetothemeaninginthegrouptheory.
Rotationsof(affine)spacesofpointsandofrespectivevectorspacesarenotalwaysclearlydistinguished.
Theformeraresometimesreferredtoasaffinerotations(althoughthetermismisleading),whereasthe
latterarevectorrotations.Seethearticlebelowfordetails.
Definitionsandrepresentations
InEuclideangeometry
Furtherinformation:EuclideanspaceRotationsandreflectionsandSpecialorthogonalgroup
AmotionofaEuclideanspaceisthesameasitsisometry:itleaves
thedistancebetweenanytwopointsunchangedafterthe
transformation.Buta(proper)rotationalsohastopreservethe
orientationstructure.The"improperrotation"termrefersto
isometriesthatreverse(flip)theorientation.Inthelanguageof
grouptheorythedistinctionisexpressedasdirectvsindirect
isometriesintheEuclideangroup,wheretheformercomprisethe
identitycomponent.AnydirectEuclideanmotioncanbe
representedasacompositionofarotationaboutthefixedpoint
andatranslation.
Therearenonontrivialrotationsinonedimension.Intwo
dimensions,onlyasingleangleisneededtospecifyarotation
abouttheorigintheangleofrotationthatspecifiesanelementof
thecirclegroup(alsoknownasU(1)).Therotationisactingto
rotateanobjectcounterclockwisethroughanangleaboutthe
originseebelowfordetails.Compositionofrotationsabout
differentsumstheiranglesmodulo1turn,thatimpliesthatalltwodimensionalrotationsaboutthesame
pointcommute.Rotationsaboutdifferentpoints,ingeneral,donotcommute.Anytwodimensionaldirect
motioniseitheratranslationorarotationseeEuclideanplaneisometryfordetails.
Rotationsinthreedimensionalspacedifferfromthoseintwodimensionsinanumberofimportantways.
Rotationsinthreedimensionsaregenerallynotcommutative,sotheorderinwhichrotationsareappliedis
importantevenaboutthesamepoint.Also,unliketwodimensionalcase,athreedimensionaldirect
EulerrotationsoftheEarth.
Intrinsic(green),precession
(blue)andnutation(red)
Anorthogonalprojectionontothree
dimensionsofatesseractbeing
rotatedinfourdimensionalEuclidean
space.
motion,ingeneralposition,isnotarotationbutascrewoperation.Rotationsabouttheoriginhavethree
degreesoffreedom(seerotationformalismsinthreedimensionsfordetails),thesameasthenumberof
dimensions.
Athreedimensionalrotationcanbespecifiedinanumberofways.The
mostusualmethodsare:
Eulerangles(picturedattheleft).Anyrotationabouttheorigincanbe
representedasthecompositionofthreerotationsdefinedasthemotion
obtainedbychangingoneoftheEulerangleswhileleavingtheothertwo
constant.Theyconstituteamixedaxesofrotationsystem,wherethefirst
anglemovesthelineofnodesaroundtheexternalaxisz,thesecond
rotatesaroundthelineofnodesandthethirdoneisanintrinsicrotation
aroundanaxisfixedinthebodythatmoves.Thispresentationis
convenientonlyforrotationsaboutafixedpoint.
Axisanglerepresentation(picturedattheright)
specifiesananglewiththeaxisaboutwhichthe
rotationtakesplace.Itcanbeeasilyvisualised.Therearetwovariantsto
representit:
asapairconsistingoftheangleandaunitvectorfortheaxis,or
asaEuclideanvectorobtainedbymultiplyingtheanglewiththisunit
vector,calledtherotationvector(although,strictlyspeaking,itisa
pseudovector).
Matrices,versors(quaternions),andotheralgebraicthings:seethe"#Linearandmultilinearalgebra
formalism"sectionfordetails.
Ageneralrotationinfourdimensionshasonlyonefixedpoint,the
centreofrotation,andnoaxisofrotationseerotationsin4
dimensionalEuclideanspacefordetails.Insteadtherotationhas
twomutuallyorthogonalplanesofrotation,eachofwhichisfixed
inthesensethatpointsineachplanestaywithintheplanes.The
rotationhastwoanglesofrotation,oneforeachplaneofrotation,
throughwhichpointsintheplanesrotate.Iftheseare
1
and
2
thenallpointsnotintheplanesrotatethroughananglebetween

1
and
2
.Rotationsinfourdimensionsaboutafixedpointhave
sixdegreesoffreedom.Afourdimensionaldirectmotionin
generalpositionisarotationaboutcertainpoint(asinalleven
Euclideandimensions),butscrewoperationsexistalso.
Linearandmultilinearalgebraformalism
Mainarticle:Rotationmatrix
WhenoneconsidersmotionsoftheEuclideanspacethatpreservetheorigin,thedistinctionbetweenpoints
andvectors,importantinpuremathematics,canbeerasedbecausethereisacanonicalonetoone
correspondencebetweenpointsandpositionvectors.ThesameistrueforgeometriesotherthanEuclidean,
butwhosespaceisanaffinespacewithasupplementarystructureseeanexamplebelow.Alternatively,
thevectordescriptionofrotationscanbeunderstoodasaparametrizationofgeometricrotationsuptotheir
compositionwithtranslations.Inotherwords,onevectorrotationpresentsmanyequivalentrotationsabout
allpointsinthespace.
Amotionthatpreservestheoriginisthesameasalinearoperatoronvectorsthatpreservesthesame
geometricstructurebutexpressedintermsofvectors.ForEuclideanvectors,thisexpressionistheir
magnitude(Euclideannorm).Incomponents,suchoperatorisexpressedwithn northogonalmatrixthat
ismultipliedtocolumnvectors.
Asitwasalreadystated,a(proper)rotationisdifferentfromanarbitraryfixedpointmotioninits
preservationoftheorientationofthevectorspace.Thus,thedeterminantofarotationorthogonalmatrix
mustbe1.Theonlyotherpossibilityforthedeterminantofanorthogonalmatrixis1,andthisresult
meansthetransformationisahyperplanereflection,apointreflection(foroddn),oranotherkindof
improperrotation.Matricesofallproperrotationsformthespecialorthogonalgroup.
Twodimensions
Intwodimensions,tocarryoutarotationusingmatricesthepoint(x, y)toberotated(orientationfrom
positivextoy)iswrittenasavector,thenmultipliedbyamatrixcalculatedfromtheangle,:
.
where(x, y)arethecoordinatesofthepointthatafterrotation,andtheformulaeforxandycanbeseen
tobe
Thevectors and havethesamemagnitudeandareseparatedbyanangleasexpected.
PointsontheR
2
planecanbealsopresentedascomplexnumbers:thepoint(x, y)intheplaneis
representedbythecomplexnumber
Thiscanberotatedthroughananglebymultiplyingitbye
i
,thenexpandingtheproductusingEuler's
formulaasfollows:
andequatingrealandimaginarypartsgivesthesameresultasatwodimensionalmatrix:
Sincecomplexnumbersformacommutativering,vectorrotationsintwodimensionsarecommutative,
unlikeinhigherdimensions.Theyhaveonlyonedegreeoffreedom,assuchrotationsareentirely
determinedbytheangleofrotation.
[1]
Threedimensions
Mainarticle:Rotationformalismsinthreedimensions
Asintwodimensions,amatrixcanbeusedtorotateapoint(x, y, z)toapoint(x, y, z).Thematrix
usedisa3 3matrix,
Thisismultipliedbyavectorrepresentingthepointtogivetheresult
Thesetofallappropriatematricestogetherwiththeoperationofmatrixmultiplicationistherotationgroup
SO(3).ThematrixAisamemberofthethreedimensionalspecialorthogonalgroup,SO(3),thatisitis
anorthogonalmatrixwithdeterminant1.Thatitisanorthogonalmatrixmeansthatitsrowsareasetof
orthogonalunitvectors(sotheyareanorthonormalbasis)asareitscolumns,makingitsimpletospotand
checkifamatrixisavalidrotationmatrix.
AbovementionedEuleranglesandaxisanglerepresentationscanbeeasilyconvertedtoarotationmatrix.
AnotherpossibilitytorepresentarotationofthreedimensionalEuclideanvectorsarequaternionsdescribed
below.
Quaternions
Mainarticle:Quaternionsandspatialrotation
Unitquaternions,orversors,areinsomewaystheleastintuitiverepresentationofthreedimensional
rotations.Theyarenotthethreedimensionalinstanceofageneralapproach.Theyaremorecompactthan
matricesandeasiertoworkwiththanallothermethods,soareoftenpreferredinrealworld
applications.
[citationneeded]
Aversor(alsocalledarotationquaternion)consistsoffourrealnumbers,constrainedsothenormofthe
quaternionis1.Thisconstraintlimitsthedegreesoffreedomofthequaterniontothree,asrequired.Unlike
matricesandcomplexnumberstwomultiplicationsareneeded:
whereqistheversor,q
1
isitsinverse,andxisthevectortreatedasaquaternionwithzeroscalarpart.
Thequaternioncanberelatedtotherotationvectorformoftheaxisanglerotationbytheexponentialmap
overthequaternions,
wherevistherotationvectortreatedasaquaternion.
Asinglemultiplicationbyaversor,eitherleftorright,isitselfarotation,butinfourdimensions.Anyfour
dimensionalrotationabouttheorigincanberepresentedwithtwoquaternionmultiplications:oneleftand
oneright,bytwodifferentunitquaternions.
Furthernotes
Moregenerally,coordinaterotationsinanydimensionarerepresentedbyorthogonalmatrices.Thesetof
allorthogonalmatricesinndimensionswhichdescribeproperrotations(determinant=+1),togetherwith
theoperationofmatrixmultiplication,formsthespecialorthogonalgroupSO(n).
Matricesareoftenusedfordoingtransformations,especiallywhenalargenumberofpointsarebeing
transformed,astheyareadirectrepresentationofthelinearoperator.Rotationsrepresentedinotherways
areoftenconvertedtomatricesbeforebeingused.Theycanbeextendedtorepresentrotationsand
transformationsatthesametimeusinghomogeneouscoordinates.Projectivetransformationsare
representedby4 4matrices.Theyarenotrotationmatrices,butatransformationthatrepresentsa
Euclideanrotationhasa3 3rotationmatrixintheupperleftcorner.
Themaindisadvantageofmatricesisthattheyaremoreexpensivetocalculateanddocalculationswith.
Alsoincalculationswherenumericalinstabilityisaconcernmatricescanbemorepronetoit,so
calculationstorestoreorthonormality,whichareexpensivetodoformatrices,needtobedonemoreoften.
Morealternativestothematrixformalism
Aswasdemonstratedabove,thereexistthreemultilinearalgebrarotationformalisms:oneofU(1),or
complexnumbers,fortwodimensions,andyettwoofversors,orquaternions,forthreeandfour
dimensions.
Ingeneral(andnotnecessarilyforEuclideanvectors)therotationofavectorspaceequippedwitha
quadraticformcanbeexpressedasabivector.Thisformalismisusedingeometricalgebraand,more
generally,intheCliffordalgebrarepresentationofLiegroups.
ThedoublycoveringgroupofSO(n)isknownastheSpingroup,Spin(n).Itcanbeconveniently
describedintermsofCliffordalgebra.UnitquaternionspresentthegroupSpin(3).
InnonEuclideangeometries
Insphericalgeometry,adirectmotionofthensphere(anexampleoftheellipticgeometry)isthesameas
arotationof(n + 1)dimensionalEuclideanspaceabouttheorigin(SO(n + 1)).Foroddn,mostof
thesemotionsdonothavefixedpointsonthensphereand,strictlyspeaking,arenotrotationsofthe
spheresuchmotionsaresometimesreferredtoasCliffordtranslations.Rotationsaboutafixedpointin
ellipticandhyperbolicgeometriesarenotdifferentfromEuclideanones.
Affinegeometryandprojectivegeometryhavenotadistinctnotionofrotation.
Inrelativity
Mainarticle:Lorentztransformation
Oneapplicationofthisisspecialrelativity,asitcanbeconsideredtooperateinafourdimensionalspace,
spacetime,spannedbythreespacedimensionsandoneoftime.Inspecialrelativitythisspaceislinearand
thefourdimensionalrotations,calledLorentztransformations,havepracticalphysicalinterpretations.The
Minkowskispaceisnotametricspace,andthetermisometryisinapplicabletoLorentztransformation.
Ifarotationisonlyinthethreespacedimensions,i.e.inaplanethatisentirelyinspace,thenthisrotationis
thesameasaspatialrotationinthreedimensions.Butarotationinaplanespannedbyaspacedimension
andatimedimensionisahyperbolicrotation,atransformationbetweentwodifferentreferenceframes,
whichissometimescalleda"Lorentzboost".ThesetransformationsdemonstratethepseudoEuclidean
natureoftheMinkowskispace.Theyaresometimesdescribedassqueezemappingsandfrequentlyappear
onMinkowskidiagramswhichvisualize(1+1)dimensionalpseudoEuclideangeometryonplanar
drawings.ThestudyofrelativityisconcernedwiththeLorentzgroupgeneratedbythespacerotationsand
hyperbolicrotations.
[2]
WhereasSO(3)rotations,inphysicsandastronomy,correspondtorotationsofcelestialsphereasa2
sphereintheEuclidean3space,LorentztransformationsfromSO(3;1)
+
induceconformal
transformationsofthecelestialsphere.ItisabroaderclassofthespheretransformationsknownasMbius
transformations.
Discreterotations
Mainarticle:pointgroup
Importance
Rotationsdefineimportantclassesofsymmetry:rotationalsymmetryisaninvariancewithrespecttoa
particularrotation.Thecircularsymmetryisaninvariancewithrespecttoallrotationaboutthefixedaxis.
Aswasstatedabove,Euclideanrotationsareappliedtorigidbodydynamics.Moreover,mostof
mathematicalformalisminphysics(suchasthevectorcalculus)isrotationinvariantseerotationformore
physicalaspects.Euclideanrotationsand,moregenerally,Lorentzsymmetrydescribedabovearethought
tobesymmetrylawsofnature.Incontrast,thereflectionalsymmetryisnotaprecisesymmetrylawof
nature.
Generalizations
Thecomplexvaluedmatricesanalogoustorealorthogonalmatricesaretheunitarymatrices.Thesetofall
unitarymatricesinagivendimensionnformsaunitarygroupU(n)ofdegreenanditssubgroup
representingproperrotationsisthespecialunitarygroupSU(n)ofdegreen.Thesecomplexrotationsare
importantinthecontextofspinors.TheelementsofSU(2)areusedtoparametrizethreedimensional
Euclideanrotations(seeabove),aswellasrespectivetransformationsofthespin(seerepresentationtheory
ofSU(2)).
Seealso
Aircraftprincipalaxes
ChartsonSO(3)
Coordinaterotationsandreflections
Infinitesimalrotation
Irrationalrotation
Orientation(geometry)
Rodrigues'rotationformula
Vortex
Footnotes
References
Hestenes,David(1999).NewFoundationsforClassicalMechanics.Dordrecht:KluwerAcademic
Publishers.ISBN0792355148.
Lounesto,Pertti(2001).Cliffordalgebrasandspinors.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.
ISBN9780521005517.
Brannon,RebeccaM.(2002)."Areviewofusefultheoremsinvolvingproperorthogonalmatrices
referencedtothreedimensionalphysicalspace."
(http://www.mech.utah.edu/~brannon/public/rotation.pdf).Albuquerque:SandiaNational
Laboratories.
Retrievedfrom"http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rotation_(mathematics)&oldid=606285944"
1. ^Lounesto2001,p.30.
2. ^Hestenes1999,pp.580588.
Categories: Euclideansymmetries Rotationalsymmetry Linearoperators Unitaryoperators
Thispagewaslastmodifiedon29April2014at05:28.
TextisavailableundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionShareAlikeLicenseadditionaltermsmay
apply.Byusingthissite,youagreetotheTermsofUseandPrivacyPolicy.Wikipediaisa
registeredtrademarkoftheWikimediaFoundation,Inc.,anonprofitorganization.