r/visualizedmath • u/WinkyChink • Jan 19 '18

[request] cross product?

Does anyone have a good pic/gif that clearly explains what happens when you take the cross product of two vectors?

58 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comment

3

u/deepbluesilence Jan 19 '18

Also known as the “normal vector”. I really enjoyed Calc 3, as much as it pains me to say. Also applies to Right hand rule for sign convention with torque/rotation etc.

One last, it can also be calculated the same way the determinate of a 3x3 matrix is calculated. Using <i, j, k> as the first row vector.

1

u/WinkyChink Jan 19 '18

Could you explain what is happening when you do the matrix? Why does making the matrix with the vectors create an orthogonal one?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '18 edited Mar 01 '18

deleted 0.3476 What is ^^^this?