Rotation Sequences and the Theory of Vectors and Coordinates

This book applies rotation theory to problems involving vectors and coordinates, with an approach that combines easily visualised procedures with smart mathematics. It constructs rotation theory from the ground up, building from basic geometry through to the motion and attitude equations of rockets, and the tensor analysis of relativity. The author replaces complicated pictures of superimposed axes with a simple and intuitive procedure of rotating a model aircraft, to create rotation sequences that are easily turned into mathematics. He combines the best of the 'active' and 'passive' approaches to rotation into a single coherent theory, and discusses many potential traps for newcomers. This volume will be useful to astronomers and engineers sighting planets and satellites, computer scientists creating graphics for movies, and aerospace engineers designing aircraft; also to physicists and mathematicians who study its abstract aspects.

• Builds the entire subject from first principles, enabling readers to understand and then implement the content in the language or convention of their own discipline
• Uses a model aircraft to quantify the core of the subject (the relative attitude of two sets of axes), bypassing the difficulty of trying to draw three-dimensional pictures of superimposed axes
• Combines the best of the 'active' and 'passive' approaches into a single method, in an approach that can be followed by all readers