Questions tagged [rotations]

This tag is for questions about rotations: a type of rigid motion in a space.

In 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional Euclidean space, the rotation is a type of distance-preserving linear transformation that has a fixed point and preserves orientation. In terms of the usual inner product $\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle$ on $\Bbb R^2$ and $\Bbb R^3$, rotations are the transformations $T$ such that $\langle Tx,Ty\rangle=\langle x,y\rangle$ for all $x,y$, and the determinant of $T$ is equal to 1.

Geometrically, the rotation in $\Bbb R^2$, "spins" the plane around a point without flipping the plane or sliding it. In $\Bbb R^3$, a rotation fixes a line (called the axis of rotation) and "spins" the space around this line (without reflecting or sliding).

More generally, given an inner product space $V$ over a field $\Bbb F$, anything in the part of the orthogonal group connected to the identity can be considered a "rotation." This allows rotations to be defined for $\Bbb R^n$ for $n$ greater than 2 and 3, as well as vector spaces over fields other than $\Bbb R$.

As an example, the space $\Bbb R^4$ with a non-Euclidean metric $(1,1,1,-1)$ is Minkowski space which is a model for special relativity. Rotations still play an important role here beyond that of rotations in the spacial coordinates. For example, Lorentz transformations are rotations which move the time coordinate.

Rotations can also be represented in terms of matrices and the tag often goes with this tag, as questions can pertain to rotation matrices.

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Math behind rotation in MS Paint

For those who don't know, MS Paint only has the options to rotate an image by right angles. To carry out an arbitrary rotation ($\theta^\circ$), the following hack is suggested: Horizontal skew by $\theta$ Vertical Stretch by $\displaystyle…
kuch nahi
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Are Euler angles the same as pitch, roll and yaw?

I am wondering if pitch, roll and yaw are used to represent Euler angles? If not, what's the relationship between them? From wiki, I know that Euler angles are used to represent the rotation from three axes independently, which seems like pitch,…
Ovilia
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Rotating x,y points 45 degrees

I have a two dimensional data set that I would like to rotate 45 degrees such that a 45 degree line from the points (0,0 and 10,10) becomes the x-axis. For example, the x,y points (1,1), (2,2), and (3,3) would be transformed to the points (0,1),…
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Proof of the extrinsic to intrinsic rotation transform

Wikipedia states that: Any extrinsic rotation is equivalent to an intrinsic rotation by the same angles but with inverted order of elemental rotations, and vice-versa. For instance, the intrinsic rotations $x-y’-z''$ by angles $\alpha,…
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What's the intuition behind the 2D rotation matrix?

Can anyone offer an intuitive proof of why the 2D rotation matrix works? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation_matrix I've tried to derive it using polar coordinates to no avail.
David Faux
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Rotating an $n$-dimensional hyperplane

Let $\mathcal{H}: \mathbf{x}^T\mathbf{w}+b=0$ be a hyperplane in the $n$-dimensional Euclidean space of column vectors. Is there a way of "rotating" the above hyperplane such that it coincides with the $(n-1)$-dimensional hyperplane $x_2x_3...x_n$…
nullgeppetto
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How can I convert an axis-angle representation to a Euler angle representation

This is a CAD problem but it boils down to just maths I think. I have a sphere that I need to rotate, and the program I use needs me to give the rotation about 3 fixed axes. This would be easy if I happened to want to rotate about one of those axes,…
user76445
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Confusion in rotation matrix - rotation about $y$ axis

The rotation matrix about y axis should look like $$\left[ \begin{array}{ccc} \cos\frac{\pi}{2} & 0 &\sin\frac{\pi}{2}\\ 0 & 1 & 0\\ -\sin\frac{\pi}{2} & 0 &\cos\frac{\pi}{2}\\ \end{array} \right] = \left[ \begin{array}{ccc} 0 & 0 &1\\ 0 & 1 &…
user65452
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Linear subspaces of rotation matrices

A rotation matrix for two dimension is contained within the space of matrices on the form $\left( \begin{array}{cc}a & -b\\ b & a\end{array} \right)$ where $a, b \in \mathbf{R}$. This matrix represents a rotation and a scaling. We can write it as a…
Rulle
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How can I rotate a coordinate around a circle?

I need to rotate an object in a circle around a central point. All I know is the rotation of the centre point in degrees, the centre point location (Which will always be 0,0), and the object location (Well actually the object distance to the centre,…
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Finding the Similarity Transform of a rotation matrix

I have a matrix equation as follows from a sensor calibration problem. At the heart of this problem is a number of 3x3 rotation matrices: $ \mathbf{R}_{b1}^{b2} = \mathbf{R}_{v}^{b} \mathbf{R}_{v1}^{v2} (\mathbf{R}_{v}^{b})^T $ where the following…
Damien
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Define Rotation matrices for arbitrary dimension?

I'm writing a graphical program and I want to ably rotation on shapes of arbitrary dimension , can some someone explain how to construct matrices for simple ,double... rotation , I don't need the entire mathematics behind it I just want to…
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Finding a specific Rotation matrix given a known vector

I have two different reference frames: xyz and x0y0z0. Both share the same origin, but there's a rotation between them. My question is: How can I find the rotation matrix of Eulers angles from xyz to x0y0z0 given that I just know the coordinates of…
mbaggio
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"multi-stability boundary" for optical illusions

Somewhat goofy question, not for any serious purpose, and I can't think of a really good title (please suggest better title/tags). I'm adding rotation functionality to my animated gif generation program, and noticed the following behaviors that…
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How can I rotate a box?

So, to collide two ships together, I currently use: if (distancex < 10 && distancez < 20 && distancex > -10 && distancez > -20){ Which obviously, is a box around the ship. Since the ship is very boxy, then that works well. distancex, distancez are…
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