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Exercise 3.1

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Prove that the dot product vw is unaffected by rotation between any pair of components.

Solution:

We consider a rotation between the x and y axes by angle s in the counterclockwise direction.
A vector having length L pointing in the direction of the x axis, will, after the rotation have component Lcos(x) in the x' direction and -Lsin(x) in the y' direction.
A vector with length M pointing in the direction of the y axis, will, after the rotation, have component Msin(s) in the x' direction and Mcos(s) in the y' direction.
We can use this information to determine the components in the x' and y' direction of any vector.
Suppose then that V has component vx in the x direction and vy in the y direction.
Then the rotation on V will have the same effect on vx as on L and the same effect on vy as on M.
We write this out explicitly both for V and a second arbitrary vector W.

vx ' = vx cos(s) - vy sin(s), vy ' = vx sin(s) + vy cos(s)
wx ' = wx cos(s) - wy sin(s), wy ' = wx sin(s) + wy cos(s).

The dot product before the rotation was vx * wx + vy * wy
After the rotation it becomes vx ' * wx' + vy ' * wy' which when written out consists of 8 terms.
There is vx * wx multiplied by cos(s) * cos(s) + sin(s) * sin(s), vy * wy multiplied by the same, and the two cross terms vx * wy and vy * wx, each multiplied by sin(s) * cos(s) - sin(s) * cos(s), that is multiplied by zero.
By the Pythagorian theorem, then, the dot product has not been changed by the rotation; that is to say, you can use the same procedure to evaluate it in either the original or rotated coordinates.