I started the weekend intending to write some java code as a ‘stretching exercise’ as I’ve been away from java for a couple of years.<\/p>\n
This took me to the linear algebra based representation of transformation matrices and from there to quaternions. I’ve looked at them in the past just a bit. This time I decided to dive in and found a good presentation at mathoma<\/a> on youtube.<\/p>\n They make sense as an extension of the complex numbers and seem to provide a superior way of managing rotations about an arbitrary axis in three-space.<\/p>\n I’ve started framing out some code to process quaternion values and I expect that to be helpful. I’ve also got the rudiments of point, vector, plane and transformation matrix classes. I’ll push what I’ve got up to github<\/a> tonight and keep working on it later in the week.<\/p>\n I wound up watching another segment here<\/a> that I switched away from after realizing that this was a mathematician who claimed not to believe in the real numbers.<\/p>\n I did run across another channel<\/a> that has a pretty decent series of lectures on tensor calculus and vector calculus. I got pulled into the tensor calculus lectures and I’m currently here<\/a>.\u00a0 I expect to work through the remainder and likely watch the vector calculus side.<\/p>\n I has been a long time since I did any vector calculus and I’ve never until now looked into tensor calculus, but it looks intriguing.<\/p>\n I’ll probably start reading the accompanying text<\/a> while I’m on vacation. I’ve also bought a more comprehensive book on quaternions<\/a> that should arrive before vacation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I started the weekend intending to write some java code as a ‘stretching exercise’ as I’ve been away from java for a couple of years. This took me to the linear algebra based representation of transformation matrices and from there to quaternions. I’ve looked at them in the past just a bit. This time I … Continue reading Quaternions, Coordinate Transformation and a bit of Tensor Calculus<\/span>