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Rotation formalisms are focused on proper (orientation-preserving) motions of the Euclidean space with one fixed point, that a rotation refers to.Although physical motions with a fixed point are an important case (such as ones described in the center-of-mass frame, or motions of a joint), this approach creates a knowledge about all motions.
In mathematics, the dot product or scalar product [note 1] 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 vectors is widely used.
In classical mechanics, Euler's rotation equations are a vectorial quasilinear first-order ordinary differential equation describing the rotation of a rigid body, using a rotating reference frame with angular velocity ω whose axes are fixed to the body.
Let k be a unit vector defining a rotation axis, and let v be any vector to rotate about k by angle θ (right hand rule, anticlockwise in the figure), producing the rotated vector . Using the dot and cross products, the vector v can be decomposed into components parallel and perpendicular to the axis k,
Since the dot product of and is constant, and itself is constant, the angular velocity vector has a constant component in the direction of the angular momentum vector . This imposes a second constraint on the vector ω {\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {\omega }}} ; in absolute space, it must lie on the invariable plane defined by its dot product ...
3D visualization of a sphere and a rotation about an Euler axis (^) by an angle of In 3-dimensional space, according to Euler's rotation theorem, any rotation or sequence of rotations of a rigid body or coordinate system about a fixed point is equivalent to a single rotation by a given angle about a fixed axis (called the Euler axis) that runs through the fixed point. [6]
A rigid motion in three dimensions that does not necessarily fix a point is a "screw motion". This is because a composition of a rotation with a translation perpendicular to the axis is a rotation about a parallel axis, while composition with a translation parallel to the axis yields a screw motion; see screw axis. This gives rise to screw theory.
Every rotation in three dimensions is defined by its axis (a vector along this axis is unchanged by the rotation), and its angle — the amount of rotation about that axis (Euler rotation theorem). There are several methods to compute the axis and angle from a rotation matrix (see also axis–angle representation ).