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I have a collection of 3D points in the standard $x$, $y$, $z$ vector space. Now I pick one of the points $p$ as a new origin and two other points $a$ and $b$ such that $a - p$ and $b - p$ form two vectors of a new vector space. The third vector of the space I will call $x$ and calculate that as the cross product of the first two vectors.

Now I would like to recast or reevaluate each of the points in my collection in terms of the new vector space. How do I do that?

(Also, if 'recasting' not the right term here, please correct me.)

  • 0
    Are you sure you are intending `x`'s magnitude to always be the result of the cross product, or only its direction?2010-07-20
  • 0
    Enjoy your three identical answers...2010-07-21

2 Answers 2

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You are changing your basis vectors, call your new ones $i$, $j$, and $k$ where $i$ is defined from $a-p$, $j$ from $b-p$, and $k$ the cross product. Now recall that your basis vectors should be unit, so take the length of your three vectors and divide the vectors by their length, making $i$, $j$, and $k$ unit. Now $a = d(a,p)*i$, $b = d(b,p)*j$.

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What you are describing is an Affine Transformation, which is a linear transformation followed by a translation.

We know this because any straight lines in your original vector space is also going to be a straight line in your transformed vector space.