Is angular velocity a vector?
- From: Edward Green <spamspamspam3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:09:22 -0700 (PDT)
Strange question, I admit.
I mean, of course it's a vector! It has a direction and magnitude.
Maybe purists will argue it's an axial vector.
But it seems to lack one common property of physical vectors: the
components don't seem to have much meaning beyond the mere geometrical
projection of the vector -- they lack physical interpretation.
If an object is rotating with angular velocity vector (1,1,0), for
example, it is rotating at 1/sqrt(2) radians/sec (magnitude) around an
axis pointing between the x and y axes (direction). But it is _not_
rotating at 1 radian/sec about either the x or y axis (components): if
you project an off-axis point down into the y-z or x-z planes, it is
making precisely as many rotation/sec about the x and y axes,
respectively, as it was about the x + y axis.
I don't know of any physical or operational sense in which we can
perform a "vector addition" of rotations about component axes to find
a net angular rotation.
Comments?
.
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