Maths - 2D Euclidean Space - Outer Product

For the 1D case on this page we calculated the full table for the outer product for null basis, but here the full table is a bit big so I have put it at the bottom of this page, here we just have the entries for cross multiplying two vectors:

a^b
b.n0 b.n b.n1 b.n2
a.n0

0

n0∞ -1/2 n01 n02
a.n -n0∞+ 1/2 0 n∞1 n∞2
a.n1 -n01 -n∞1 0 n12
a.n2 -n02 -n∞2 -n12 0

Each term in this table is calculated from:
n0= (e1 + e2)/2
n= (e1 - e2)/2
n1= e3
n2= e4

So we just multiply out each term by converting to 'e' basis, doing inner product, then converting back to 'n' basis.

The outer product of two null vectors

Lets take the point 'p' (x1,y1) in Euclidean space, this gives,

p=(-1,x1²+y1²,x1,y1)

and we want to take the outer product with q:

q=(-1,x2²+y2²,x2,y2)

So, multiplying out the terms using the above table, the outer product is the multivector:

scalar = (x1²+y1² -x2²- y2²)/2
n0∞ = x2²+y2² - x1²-y1²
n01 = x1 - x2
n02 = y1 - y2
n∞1 = x1²x2 - x2²x1 = x1x2(x1 - x2)
n∞y = y1²y2 - y2²y1 = y1y2(y1 - y2)
n12 = x1 y2 - x2 y1

Meet

In the above example if x1=x2 and y1=y2 then:

scalar = 0
n0∞ = 0
n01 = 0
n02 = 0
n∞1 = 0
n∞y = 0
n12 = 0

So this gives us a way to test if x1 and x2 represent the same point since, if they do then,

p^q=0

a*b
b.n b.n0 b.n b.n0∞ b.n1 b.n01 b.n∞1 b.n0∞1 b.n2 b.n02 b.n∞2 b.n0∞2 b.n12 b.n012 b.n∞12 b.n0∞12
a.n 1 n0
n n0∞ n1 n01 n∞1 n0∞1 n2 n02
n∞2 n0∞2        
a.n0 n0

0

n0∞ -1/2 n0/2 n01 0 n0∞1-n1/2 n01/2 n02 0 n0∞2-n2/2 0        
a.n n -n0∞+ 1/2 0 n/2 n∞1 -n0∞1+n1/2 0 n∞1/2 n∞2 n2/2-n0∞2 0 n∞2/2        
a.n0∞ n0∞ n0/2 n/2 n0∞-1/4 n0∞1 n01/2 n∞1/2 n0∞1-n1/2 n0∞2 n02/2 n∞2/2 n0∞2-n2/2        
a.n1 n1 -n01 -n∞1 n0∞1 0 0 0 0         0 0 0 0
a.n01 n01 0

-n0∞1+n1/2

n01/2 0 0 0 0         0 0 0 0
a.n∞1 n∞1 n0∞1-n1/2 0 n∞1/2 0 0 0 0         0 0 0 0
a.n0∞1 n0∞1 n01/2 n∞1/2 n0∞1-n1/2 0 0 0 0         0 0 0 0
a.n2 n2 -n02
-n∞2 n0∞2         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
a.n02 n02 0

-n0∞2+n2/2

n02/2         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
a.n∞2 n∞2 n0∞2-n2/2 0 n∞2/2         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
a.n0∞2 n0∞2 n02/2 n∞2/2 n0∞2-n2/2         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
a.n12         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
a.n012         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
a.n∞12         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
a.n0∞12         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

metadata block
see also:

 

Correspondence about this page

Book Shop - Further reading.

Where I can, I have put links to Amazon for books that are relevant to the subject, click on the appropriate country flag to get more details of the book or to buy it from them.

flag flag flag flag flag flag Geometric Algebra for Computer Science: An Object-oriented Approach to Geometry. This book stresses the Geometry in Geometric Algebra, although it is still very mathematically orientated. Programmers using this book will need to have a lot of mathematical knowledge. Its good to have a Geometric Algebra book aimed at computer scientists rather than physicists. There is more information about this book here.

 

This site may have errors. Don't use for critical systems.

Copyright (c) 1998-2023 Martin John Baker - All rights reserved - privacy policy.