Let vec(x) be a vector, such that vec(x) = (−1, 1), " and let " R(θ) = [(costheta, -sintheta), (sintheta, costheta )], that is Rotation Operator. For theta=3/4pi find vec(y) = R(theta)vec(x)? Make a sketch showing x, y, and θ?

1 Answer
Jun 2, 2016

This turns out to be a counterclockwise rotation. Can you guess by how many degrees?


Let T:RR^2 |-> RR^2 be a linear transformation, where

T(vecx) = R(theta)vecx,
R(theta) = [(costheta,-sintheta),(sintheta,costheta)],
vecx = << -1,1 >>.

Note that this transformation was represented as the transformation matrix R(theta).

What it means is since R is the rotation matrix which represents the rotational transformation, we can multiply R by vecx to accomplish this transformation.

[(costheta,-sintheta),(sintheta,costheta)]xx<< -1,1 >>

For an MxxK and KxxN matrix, the result is an color(green)(MxxN) matrix, where M is the row dimension and N is the column dimension. That is:

[(y_(11),y_(12), . . . , y_(1n)),(y_(21),y_(22), . . . , y_(2n)),(vdots,vdots, ddots , vdots),(y_(m1),y_(m2), . . . , y_(mn))]

= [(R_(11),R_(12), . . . , R_(1k)),(R_(21),R_(22), . . . , R_(2k)),(vdots,vdots, ddots , vdots),(R_(m1),R_(m2), . . . ,R_(mk))]xx[(x_(11),x_(12), . . . , x_(1n)),(x_(21),x_(22), . . . , x_(2n)),(vdots,vdots, ddots , vdots),(x_(k1),x_(k2), . . . , x_(kn))]

Therefore, for a 2xx2 matrix multiplied by a 1xx2, we have to transpose the vector to get a 2xx1 column vector, giving us an answer that is a \mathbf(2xx1) column vector.

Multiplying these two gives:

[(costheta,-sintheta),(sintheta,costheta)]xx[(-1),(1)]

= [(-costheta - sintheta),(-sintheta + costheta)]

Next, we can plug in theta = (3pi)/4 (which I'm assuming is the correct angle) to get:

color(blue)(T(vecx) = R(theta)vecx)

= R(theta)[(-1),(1)]

= [(-cos((3pi)/4) - sin((3pi)/4)),(-sin((3pi)/4) + cos((3pi)/4))]

= [(-cos135^@ - sin135^@),(-sin135^@ + cos135^@)]

= [(-(-sqrt2/2) - sqrt2/2),(-sqrt2/2 + (-sqrt2/2))]

= color(blue)([(0),(-sqrt2)])

Now, let's graph this to see what this looks like. I can tell that it's a counterclockwise rotation, after determining the transformed vector.

Indeed, a counterclockwise rotation by 135^@.

CHALLENGE: Maybe you can consider what happens when the matrix is [(costheta, sintheta),(-sintheta, costheta)] instead. Do you think it will be clockwise?