Re: Linear algebra
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg15990] Re: [mg15876] Linear algebra
- From: "Richard Finley" <rfinley at medicine.umsmed.edu>
- Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 03:27:07 -0500
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Roland....here is a way to do it using Mma:
Define the unit direction vectors for the diagonal of a cube in a matrix d
d = {{1/Sqrt[3],1/Sqrt[3],1/Sqrt[3]},{-1/Sqrt[3],1/Sqrt[3],1/Sqrt[3]},{1/
Sqrt[3],-1/Sqrt[3],
1/Sqrt[3]},{1/Sqrt[3],1/Sqrt[3],-1/Sqrt[3]}}
Find the unit direction vector of your line ...eg. if r = {r1,r2,r3} is
the non-unit direction vector then
n = r/Sqrt[r.r] will be the unit direction vector.
Then your diagonal angles are given by v = ArcCos[d.n//Simplify]
And finally the answer by Sum[Cos[v[[i]]]^2,{i,1,4}]//Simplify
Which will give you the simple fractional answer (that does not depend on
n!!). One doesn't actually need to go through all those computations but
I did it that way to put it more closely into the form you requested.
Hope that helps......regards, RF
>>> Roland Bengtsson <d98rolb at stud.hh.se> 02/17/99 10:33PM >>>
Let V1, V2, V3 and V4 be the angles that a given line create with
the diagonals in space in a cube. How can I calc the sum of:
(cos V1)^2 + (cos V2)^2 + (cos V3)^2 + (cos V4)^2
in Mathematica 3.0 or by hand?
All help appreciated!