AHHHHHH I finally understand quaternions!! XDD :DD
I always thought they were neat fun thing in abstract algebra and a neat but arbitrary way of representing rotations with unnecessarily extra numbers.
If someone had just said to me this sentence I would have seen how insanely perfect they are!! :D
As rotations, the i/j/k coefficients are the x/y/z components of the axis-of-rotation vector, and the fourth lone number is the amount of the rotation in radians!
🇳🇱
@codepuppy Way to go, its great to learn a new thing...
Here is the catch to really understanding Quaternions and how to use them though... do you understand what a quaternion can accomplish and why one might use it over the simpler to understand and more generally useful vector math? Afterall if you use vectors you can work in any number of dimensions whereas quaternions are limited 3D rotations or 4D points. So understanding why quaternions are superior for specific situations is really the key to getting them and using them.
@freemo Ahh I see, like how the cross product is dimensionally-limited :3
Well I'm mostly focused on writing 3D computational geometry code right now, and mostly I'm just excited that I already basically understand this thing everyone's talking about XD
I thought quaternions had some insanely arbitrary arcane set of formulas for transforming the x/y/z of a 3D vector into the rotated vector and I should learn them someday when I had time to spare (haha) but they weren't essential.
@freemo OH WAIT
Attention everyone who saw this post! This is totally wrong!! XD'''
Quaternions *are* strange formulas for transforming coordinates!!
And here they are!
It still annoys me that they don't appear *anywhere on the actual wikipedia page for quaternions*!! X'D
But on this page! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%E2%80%93Rodrigues_formula
for quaternion = a + bi + cj + dk
a = cos(θ/2)
b = x sin(θ/2)
c = y sin(θ/2)
d = z sin(θ/2)
where x/y/z are the axis of rotation and θ is the amount in radians!
@codepuppy They are just complex numbers more or less, really nothing too complex...
The magic that you seem to be missing though is still why they are useful, special and prefered for certain situations.
