direction cosines
If the non-zero vector of forms the angles , and with the positive directions of -axis, -axis and -axis, respectively, then the numbers
are the direction cosines of the vector. Any triple of numbers, which are proportional (http://planetmath.org/Variation) to the direction cosines, are direction numbers of the vector.
If is the of , we see easily that
Conversely, the components of the vector on the coordinate axes may be obtained from
We also see that the direction cosines satisfy
Title | direction cosines |
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Canonical name | DirectionCosines |
Date of creation | 2013-03-22 17:16:32 |
Last modified on | 2013-03-22 17:16:32 |
Owner | pahio (2872) |
Last modified by | pahio (2872) |
Numerical id | 8 |
Author | pahio (2872) |
Entry type | Definition |
Classification | msc 15A72 |
Classification | msc 51N20 |
Related topic | MutualPositionsOfVectors |
Related topic | EquationOfPlane |
Defines | direction numbers |