This is the mail archive of the gsl-discuss@sources.redhat.com mailing list for the GSL project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
Other format: [Raw text]

Re: is there a vector cross product function?


On Fri, Mar 05, 2004 at 03:32:00PM +0000, Brian Gough wrote:
> Britton Kerin writes:
>  > 
>  > I was looking around for a cross product function and didn't see it.  Does 
>  > it go by some other name, or is there a reason this sort of routine is not 
>  > included?
> 
> It is not included, because 3-vectors do not fit naturally into the
> gsl_vector framework.

I suppose I should ignore this email, but can't help myself.

You can compute the cross-product for n-dimensional vectors, its
called the alternating product. Brian knows this, Britton may not.

Maybe its time for a gsl_tensor framework?

FYI,
I posted some code a few months ago that computed the alternating 
product.  Two problems with that code: 1) it didn't use the gsl framework,
2) I was using it to compute the determinant of a matrix, which
is an algorithm that goes as O(N!) that right n-factorial in cpu time
so its ahh, tempting to say "if you need the determinant of something,
you shouldn't use a computer to compute it."



Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]