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Re: Wrong behavior of CrossProduct

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg7977] Re: [mg7958] Wrong behavior of CrossProduct
• From: David Withoff <withoff>
• Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 02:37:48 -0400
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Hello,

> How Mathematica implement the Cross Product of two vectors?
>
>  As far as I know the basic definition of the Cross Product between
>two vectors in ANY ORTHOGONAL coordinated system is as follows:
>
>(a1,a2,a3)X(b1,b2,b3) = (a2*b3 - a3*b2,
>                         a3*b1 - a1*b3,
>                         a1*b2 - a2*b1)

I think that this definition applies only to cartesian coordinate
systems.  It is very common, however, especially in describing vector
fields, to use a locally cartesian coordinate system even when the
host coordinate system is not cartesian.  

Dave Withoff
Wolfram Research