MathGem:Vector Operations

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Symbols

A brief overview of mathematical symbols relevant to this page.

$\vec u, \vec v, \vec w$ - common generic vectors

$\begin{bmatrix} x \\ y \\ z \end{bmatrix}$ - visual representation of a vector

$\hat u, \hat v, \hat w$ - generic unit vectors (length = 1)

$\left | \vec v \right |$ - length of a vector

$θ$ - angle between two vectors

$\vec v \cdot \vec w$ - dot product (of $\vec v$ and $\vec w$ )

$\vec v \times \vec w$ - cross product (of $\vec v$ and $\vec w$ )

Length Of A Vector

A simple yet powerful operation, lengths of a vector are used in a variety of the more complex vector matrix operations. Also, they can be used to determine the distance between two objects, by creating a vector from the subtraction of the two objects' coordinates and then taking the length of that vector:

$\left | \vec v \right | = \sqrt{{\vec v}_x^{~2} + {\vec v}_y^{~2} + {\vec v}_z^{~2}}$

C


include <math.h>

typedef struct Vector3_
{

 double x;
 double y;
 double z;

} Vector3;
double length(Vector3 *v)
{

 return (sqrt(v->x*v->x + v->y*v->y + v->z*v->z));

}

C++


include <cmath>

struct Vector3
{

 double x;
 double y;
 double z;

};
double length(Vector3 const &v)
{

 return (std::sqrt(v.x*v.x + v.y*v.y + v.z*v.z));

} Note that there's a Complete math::vector Class elsewhere on the wiki that you can use instead of writing your own.

C#

public class Vector3 {


 public double X;
 public double Y;
 public double Z;

 public double Length
 {
   get{return System.Math.Sqrt(X*X + Y*Y + Z*Z);}
 }

}

Python


 v is a tuple representing a 3d vector

def length(v):

   return (v[0]*v[0] + v[1]*v[1] + v[2]*v[2]) ** 0.5

Ruby


 v is a Vector (see http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Vector.html)

def length(v)

 Math.sqrt( v[0]*v[0] + v[1]*v[1] + v[2]*v[2]) )

end

Visual Basic

' In Public Object Module: Public Type Vector3


 X As Double
 Y As Double
 Z As Double

End Type
Public Function LENGTH(v as Vector3) As Double

 LENGTH = (v.x^2 + v.y^2 + v.z^2) ^ .5

End Function

PureBasic

Structure Vector


x.f
y.f
z.f

EndStructure
Procedure.f Length(*v.vector) ;Return a decimal value

ProcedureReturn Sqr(Pow(*v\x,2) + Pow(*v\y,2) + Pow(*v\z,2))

EndProcedure

Normalize

Normalizing a vector forms the basis of many more advanced vector operations. The process takes a vector of any length and preserves only its direction information (gives it a length of 1). This is useful when projecting one matrix into the axis of another with a dot product. Mathematically, a normalized vector is called a unit vector and can be obtained easily by dividing the vector by it's length: $\hat v = \frac{\vec v}{\left | \vec v \right |}$ . In practice, however, each component (X, Y, and Z) of the vector is divided by it's length seperately.

C

typedef struct Vector3_ {


 double x;
 double y;
 double z;

} Vector3;
void Normalize(Vector3 *v)
{

 double len = length(v);
 v->x /= len;
 v->y /= len;
 v->z /= len;

}

C++

struct Vector3 {


 double x;
 double y;
 double z;

};
void Normalize(Vector3 &v)
{

 double len = length(v);
 v.x /= len;
 v.y /= len;
 v.z /= len;

} Note that there's a Complete math::vector Class elsewhere on the wiki that you can use instead of writing your own.

C#

public class Vector3 {


 public double X;
 public double Y;
 public double Z;

 public void Normalize()
 {
   // Vector3.Length property is under length section
   double length = this.Length;

   X /= length;
   Y /= length;
   Z /= length;
 }

}

Ruby


 v is a Vector (see http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Vector.html)

def normalize( v )

 len = length( v )
 return Vector[v[0]/len,v[1]/len,v[2]/len]

end

Python


 v is a tuple representing a 3d vector

def normalize(v):

   len = length(v);
   return (v[0] / len, v[1] / len, v[2] / len)

Visual Basic

' In Public Object Module: Public Type Vector3


 X As Double
 Y As Double
 Z As Double

End Type
Public Function NORMALIZE(ByRef v as Vector3)

 Dim VectorLen As Double
 VectorLen = LENGTH(v)
 v.X = v.X / VectorLen
 v.Y = v.Y / VectorLen
 v.Z = v.Z / VectorLen

End Function

PureBasic

Structure Vector


x.f
y.f
z.f

EndStructure
Procedure.f Normalize(*v.Vector)

Dist.f = Length(*v)

*v\x / Dist
*v\y / Dist
*v\z / Dist

EndProcedure

The Dot Product

The dot product is very useful in game programming as it gives the angle between two vectors: $\cos \theta = \frac{\vec v \cdot \vec w}{ \left | \vec v \right \vert \left | \vec w \right \vert}$ where $θ$ is the angle between vectors $\vec v$ and $\vec w$ . On its own, the dot product is the length of the projection of $\vec v$ onto the unit vector $\hat w$ when the two vectors are placed so that their tails coincide.

C

typedef struct Vector3_ {


 double x;
 double y;
 double z;

} Vector3;
double dot(Vector3 *v, Vector3 *w)
{

 return (v->x*w->x + v->y*w->y + v->z*w->z);

}

C++

struct Vector3 {


 double x;
 double y;
 double z;

};
double dot(Vector3 const &v, Vector3 const &w)
{

 return (v.x*w.x + v.y*w.y + v.z*w.z);

} Note that there's a Complete math::vector Class elsewhere on the wiki that you can use instead of writing your own.

C#

public class Vector3 {


 public double X;
 public double Y;
 public double Z;

 public static double Dot(Vector3 v, Vector3 w)
 {
   return (v.X*w.X + v.Y*w.Y + v.Z*w.Z);
 }

}

Ruby


 v and w are Vectors (see http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Vector.html)

def dot( v, w )

v[0]*w[0] + v[1]*w[1] + v[2]*w[2]

Python


 v and w are tuples representing 3d vectors

def dot(v, w):

   return v[0]*w[0] + v[1]*w[1] + v[2]*w[2]

Visual Basic

' In Public Object Module: Public Type Vector3


 X As Double
 Y As Double
 Z As Double

End Type
Public Function DOT(v as Vector3, w as Vector3) As Double

 DOT = v.x*w.x + v.y*w.y + v.z*w.z

End Function

PureBasic

Structure Vector


x.f
y.f
z.f

EndStructure
Procedure Dot(*v.Vector,*w.Vector)

ProcedureReturn (*v\x * *w\x + *v\y * *w\y + *v\z * *w\z)

EndProcedure

The Cross Product

The cross product is a mathematical operation that will return a resultant vector that is orthogonal to the two vectors used to calculate it and has a length relative to the lengths of the vectors and the angles between them: $\left | \vec u \times \vec v \right | = \left | \vec u \right | \left | \vec v \right | \sin \theta$

or (in terms of dot product):

$\left | \vec u \times \vec v \right | = \left | \vec u \right | \left | \vec v \right | \sqrt{1-(\vec u \cdot \vec v)^2}$

Visually, the orientation of a cross product resultant can be seen here:

Files:cross.gif

The cross product becomes very useful when calculating normals (vector orthogonal to a surface), which are used extensively in 3D game programming.

C

typedef struct Vector3_ {


 double x;
 double y;
 double z;

} Vector3;
Vector3 cross(Vector3 *v, Vector3 *w)
{

 Vector3 c = {
   v.y*w.z - v.z*w.y,
   v.z*w.x - v.x*w.z,
   v.x*w.y - v.y*w.x };
 return c;

}

C++

struct Vector3 {


 double x, y, z;
 
 Vector3(double set_x, double set_y, double set_z): 
 x(set_x), y(set_y), z(set_z) 
 {}

};
Vector3 cross(Vector3 const &v, Vector3 const &w)
{

 return Vector3(
   v.y*w.z - v.z*w.y,
   v.z*w.x - v.x*w.z,
   v.x*w.y - v.y*w.x );

} Note that there's a Complete math::vector Class elsewhere on the wiki that you can use instead of writing your own.

C#

public class Vector3 {


 public double X;
 public double Y;
 public double Z;

 public static Vector3 Cross(Vector3 v, Vector3 w)
 {
   return new Vector3(
     v.Y*w.Z - v.Z*w.Y,
     v.Z*w.X - v.X*w.Z,
     v.X*w.Y - v.Y*w.X );
 }

}

Ruby


 v is a Vector (see http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Vector.html)

def cross( v, w )

   x = v[1]*w[2] - v[2]*w[1]
   y = v[2]*w[0] - v[0]*w[2]
   z = v[0]*w[1] - v[1]*w[0]
   Vector[x,y,z]

end

Python


 v and w are tuples representing 3d vectors

def cross(v, w):

   x = v[1]*w[2] - v[2]*w[1]
   y = v[2]*w[0] - v[0]*w[2]
   z = v[0]*w[1] - v[1]*w[0]

   return (x, y, z)

Visual Basic

' In Public Object Module: Public Type Vector3


 X As Double
 Y As Double
 Z As Double

End Type
Public Function CROSS(v as Vector3, w as Vector3) As Vector3

 CROSS.X = v.Y*w.Z - v.Z*w.Y
 CROSS.Y = v.Z*w.X - v.X*w.Z
 CROSS.Z = v.X*w.Y - v.Y*w.X

End Function

Back To Programming Techniques

MathGem:Vector Operations

Contents

Symbols

Length Of A Vector

C

C++

C#

Python

Ruby

Visual Basic

PureBasic

Normalize

C

C++

C#

Ruby

Python

Visual Basic

PureBasic

The Dot Product

C

C++

C#

Ruby

Python

Visual Basic

PureBasic

The Cross Product

C

C++

C#

Ruby

Python

Visual Basic

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