Fantastic Quaternions - Numberphile

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  • Опубликовано: 17 янв 2016
  • Dr James Grime discusses a type of number beyond the complex numbers, and why they are useful.
    Extra footage: • Quaternions (extra foo...
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Комментарии • 1,5 тыс.

  • @rudymartin8583
    @rudymartin8583 8 лет назад +971

    If you're like me and were completely confused by the equation i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = ijk = -1 , go to the extra footage, it really helped me. The reason it looks so weird is because you lose the commutative property when you go from 2D rotation to 3D rotation, the property stating that ab = ba . This means that the order of multiplication matters, and that if you reorder them, you get a different result.
    If you'll imagine for a minute, when you rotate an object in 2D space, you can do more than one rotation, and the order of those rotations wouldn't matter; it'll end up in the same ending position. But if you're rotating an object in 3D space, then the order of the rotations absolutely matters! Turning an object 90 deg counterclockwise then 90 deg away from you (if that makes any sense...) is not the same as turning it 90 deg away from you then 90 deg counterclockwise.

    • @jackismname
      @jackismname 7 лет назад +34

      Marie Alexander Thank you very much for this explanation!

    • @ceruchi2084
      @ceruchi2084 6 лет назад +57

      Incredibly useful comment! I just spent the last five minutes rotating a beer can in "two" dimensions and then in three dimensions, and now this makes intuitive sense.

    • @user-qk7qr7qq8t
      @user-qk7qr7qq8t 6 лет назад +5

      ceruchi same with my finger😂

    • @mawebb88
      @mawebb88 6 лет назад +12

      I did the same with a nail file and I had the revelation like you.

    • @xavierstanton8146
      @xavierstanton8146 5 лет назад +6

      Yes, you could say that the quaternions aren't Abelian.

  • @pegy6384
    @pegy6384 8 лет назад +978

    I would pay to watch a blooper reel or outtakes from all the main Numberphile presenters. I'm sure there's a lot of funny stuff that we never get to see.

    • @numberphile
      @numberphile  8 лет назад +488

      +Peg Y I think they'd pay me NOT to show that! :)

    • @davecrupel2817
      @davecrupel2817 8 лет назад +17

      +Numberphile I'd pay for a dvd of them 😁lol

    • @VicvicW
      @VicvicW 8 лет назад +55

      +Numberphile We shall outbid them!

    • @moritzkockritz5710
      @moritzkockritz5710 8 лет назад +11

      +Numberphile We are MORE!

    • @hugo.teixeira
      @hugo.teixeira 8 лет назад +27

      +Peg Y I imagine them committing mistakes in easy sums or basic stuff like 4+2

  • @gabrielkwiecinskiantunes8950
    @gabrielkwiecinskiantunes8950 7 лет назад +441

    6:01 James realizes he can't express his thoughts using mere words.

    • @DeathBringer769
      @DeathBringer769 6 лет назад +34

      I'm sure many mathematicians go through the same feeling many times in their lives, lol.

    • @TheNefastor
      @TheNefastor 5 лет назад +16

      And that's why we have numbers :-)

  • @PhilippeGouin
    @PhilippeGouin 8 лет назад +97

    Finally an video that doesn't start with "it's complicated, so just ignore what they are, here's how to use them"! Great explanation, thanks!

  • @krakow10
    @krakow10 8 лет назад +561

    My origin story! I cry every time.

    • @TheNefastor
      @TheNefastor 5 лет назад +82

      You're got a... complex story ? 😅

    • @lawrencedoliveiro9104
      @lawrencedoliveiro9104 4 года назад +21

      Peeling quaternions can apparently do that to you.

    • @onigumo
      @onigumo 2 года назад +4

      KZ, man of culture

    • @vin_fm2354
      @vin_fm2354 2 года назад +2

      This entire comment section makes me wanna d(i)e

    • @asheep7797
      @asheep7797 2 года назад +8

      He still keeps his name after 6 years!

  • @AlanKey86
    @AlanKey86 8 лет назад +2917

    I had a friend at uni whose answer phone message was:
    *Sorry, the number you have dialed is imaginary. Please rotate your phone through 90 degrees and try again*
    Epic.

    • @icannotchoose
      @icannotchoose 8 лет назад +172

      I aspire to be that person.

    • @VicvicW
      @VicvicW 8 лет назад +26

      Byootiful!

    • @NickiRusin
      @NickiRusin 8 лет назад +65

      +AlanKey86 That dude was probably a real fun dude to talk to.

    • @U014B
      @U014B 8 лет назад +30

      +Drama_Llama_5000 I am that person!

    • @NickiRusin
      @NickiRusin 8 лет назад +27

      ***** You're cool, man.

  • @skroot7975
    @skroot7975 8 лет назад +127

    James is like a kid at christmas all the time. Love it!

  • @fakjbf3129
    @fakjbf3129 8 лет назад +91

    Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a mathematician at Oxford when this was discovered. He hated abstract math, and thought it was all a bunch of hogwash with no basis in reality. So he wrote a book in which he included a caricature of various abstract mathematical concepts, including quaternions. He wrote it under the pseudonym Lewis Carrol and it's called Alice in Wonderland.

    • @voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885
      @voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 5 лет назад +13

      "real numbers are a convenient fiction" - Bertrand Russell

    • @bobnavonvictorsteyn9017
      @bobnavonvictorsteyn9017 3 года назад +2

      That is the coolest thing I have heard all day

    • @rosiefay7283
      @rosiefay7283 3 года назад +4

      What's the correspondence between various abstract mathematical concepts, including quaternions, and anything in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? (BTW take another look at the name of the author in that book.)

    • @grandpaobvious
      @grandpaobvious Год назад +5

      doubtful anecdote is doubtful

    • @ragnkja
      @ragnkja Год назад

      @@grandpaobvious
      It’s the tea party scene, and in particular the bit around “At least I mean what I say.”

  • @Omedalus
    @Omedalus 2 года назад +7

    I've been watching dozens of videos on quaternions. This is the first one that actually explained how quaternion multiplication results in spatial rotation. Specifically at time 4:50, In showing how to rotate by 45° on the complex plane, everything else just kind of falls into place. Magical. Thank you!

  • @HeavyboxesDIYMaster
    @HeavyboxesDIYMaster 8 лет назад +758

    6:03 What math technique is that?

    • @the-keymaker
      @the-keymaker 8 лет назад +87

      It's a mathematical gesture, duh

    • @YourMJK
      @YourMJK 8 лет назад +238

      It's the gesture equivalent for crossing out your previous result

    • @the-keymaker
      @the-keymaker 8 лет назад +28

      +YourMJKTube genius

    • @karanbajwa1963
      @karanbajwa1963 8 лет назад +28

      +Heavyboxes Its a 'mis-calculated' gesture.

    • @TNBLUEDIXIE
      @TNBLUEDIXIE 7 лет назад +11

      Noice

  • @Entropy3ko
    @Entropy3ko 8 лет назад +8

    "lots of i" love that Brit-speak.
    You explained it very well James!

  • @brianhoskins1979
    @brianhoskins1979 8 лет назад +9

    Numberphile is easily the best channel on all of RUclips.
    When I was in school I feared maths, and I gave myself the idea that I was really bad at it. I have since learned that actually I'm *not* bad at it - I just needed to have a bit of confidence and the will to try hard, that's all.
    If Numberphile had been around when I was in school I think it would have been the inspiration I'd have needed, and maybe I never would have given myself the stupid idea that I couldn't do maths.

  • @lohphat
    @lohphat 8 лет назад +73

    How can a 12min video finally get the concept of "i" across so clearly which my high-school teacher could not?
    I suspect I wasn't paying attention or I was just not interested or motivated to learn. Now it makes much more sense. Perhaps the development of mobile tech and graphics showing these concepts in real time make it easier...

    • @swaggercr7
      @swaggercr7 8 лет назад +11

      What's so hard about understanding it?

    • @MattCattrell
      @MattCattrell 8 лет назад +3

      +Longarmx This is something that just wasn't really dealt with well when I was in school, either. The concept of visual learners was well established, and no one would dream of trying to teach a toddler something without visual aids, but math teachers in the 90's, heck most teachers in high school, just seemed to forget this all and keep trying to explain using the same words and phrases over and over again... I hope that has changed these days!

    • @lohphat
      @lohphat 8 лет назад +4

      +SwaggerCR7 As he stated, the term "complex" is misleading and the mechanical formulations are all I remember from school. The graphical relationships demonstrated here made it all "click" and come together.

    • @RylanEdlin
      @RylanEdlin 8 лет назад +3

      +lohphat I think the confusion is that modern usage conflates complex and complicated when they actually have different meanings: complicated meaning difficult and complex meaning built of many parts.

    • @Theraot
      @Theraot 8 лет назад +4

      +lohphat As far as I can tell, most teachers will start by going about the square root of negative one. While starting at using them as vectors is easier to grasp.

  • @JacobFelten
    @JacobFelten 8 лет назад +3

    Imagine if the video ended right after he said, "Their fantastic!" at 0:35. He's so charismatic that I still would have thought it was a great video.

  • @2Cerealbox
    @2Cerealbox 8 лет назад +8

    I had been hearing that quaternions were scary, even though it was how all game engines work underneath the surface. You've made the subject much more approachable.

  • @ConstantlyDamaged
    @ConstantlyDamaged 8 лет назад +292

    A video explaining why the extra dimension is needed, would be awesome.
    Also, if my calc3 professor at university had spent the 12 minutes to explain what complex numbers were, the way you did, I might have actually completed the damn course >.>

    • @Vulcapyro
      @Vulcapyro 8 лет назад +54

      +Darthane ...You took a Calc 3 course without some linear algebra?

    • @ConstantlyDamaged
      @ConstantlyDamaged 8 лет назад +4

      Vulcapyro I took it in order, never got any advice to do otherwise. If there was something I missed then that explains my freakout over completely not understanding what was going on :)

    • @logicalfundy
      @logicalfundy 8 лет назад +7

      +Darthane I believe it has to do with 2D having one degree of freedom (you just rotate around a point), but 3D having three degrees of freedom (you can rotate around the x, y, z axes of a point in 3D space).

    • @ophello
      @ophello 8 лет назад +16

      +Darthane You need three pieces of information to define a point in space, but that's not enough to tell it what to do. Quaternions are about manipulating points in space, not just defining their position.

    • @DFPercush
      @DFPercush 8 лет назад +30

      +Darthane Think of the "stab and rotate" analogy. What do you need in order to "stab" something? A vector, right? Imagine the pointy tip like a spear piercing the object. A vector in 3d space takes 3 numbers. Then you need another number for the angle.

  • @TecaLucas2ndChannel1
    @TecaLucas2ndChannel1 8 лет назад +87

    Quaternions sound like a race out of a Sci-Fi movie.

    • @johnhadaruga1375
      @johnhadaruga1375 3 года назад

      Nemes in Sci-Fi movies came out of science . Duh :D

    • @Spedley_2142
      @Spedley_2142 3 года назад

      Way more complex than Bynars!

  • @GamesFromSpace
    @GamesFromSpace 8 лет назад +331

    I've been using quaternions for years, as a programmer, and have absolutely NFI how they really work (even though I can implement them, and certainly know how to get results from them). Matrices, please.

    • @hanniffydinn6019
      @hanniffydinn6019 8 лет назад +30

      You have to get into algebraic geometry to truly understand then. Which means every number is really just a higher dimensional object in space. Real and complex numbers are just "cut" down views to what is really going on. Hence, we live in a multi dimensional universe !

    • @eideticex
      @eideticex 8 лет назад +5

      +Joshua Pearce It's not too hard to understand if you plot out your axes that form from transforming the world's forward, up and right vectors against a quaternion. It's really not any different from axis-angle, some of the math is already done for you with a quaternion. Even with a matrix you wind up needing them to prevent gimble lock if your expecting unpredictable rotations performed on the matrix (like a camera being moved around).

    • @GamesFromSpace
      @GamesFromSpace 8 лет назад +14

      (And every time I mention quaternions being something I don't grok, I get a new set of attempted explanations to add to the pile...)
      Alan Hunter You mostly just described how and when to use them, which is something I've been doing fine for years. And I would never use quaternions AND matrices, I'd use just matrices if I needed that extra info, and convert to quaternions only when a different API needs them, or it somehow simplifies a function. I guess it depends how you define the term "use" in this context. They certainly both have their uses.

    • @frankschneider6156
      @frankschneider6156 8 лет назад +5

      +Hanniffy Dinn
      Only if one assumes these numbers have physical reality. Mathematics is a tool to describe physics/reality. Reality is not the implementation of what's mathematically possible.

    • @yuriythebest
      @yuriythebest 8 лет назад +2

      +Joshua Pearce Yess sir!! So I'm not the only one! Euler angles are fine, but quaternions are all about trial n effort in getting your desired result. Watching this video, I felt as if he was using elvish script to describe something I use - it's not us who are wrong, it's the maths people with their complex stuff!!

  • @warlour
    @warlour 2 года назад +2

    Thank you so much for still having this old video! It really broadened my understanding of Quaternions and Complex Numbers :)

  • @pidigi
    @pidigi 2 месяца назад

    You have no idea how this channel is helping me to grow. I’ve no enough thank you

  • @komrad36
    @komrad36 8 лет назад +154

    I use quats every day! In addition to computer graphics, they are useful in aerospace. I use them for satellite attitude control. Cheers!

    • @-Danny
      @-Danny 8 лет назад +9

      You have an awesome sounding job! I bet it pays well. Haha.

    • @thegrumpysock6391
      @thegrumpysock6391 8 лет назад +2

      what is your job and whar did you study?

    • @MattCattrell
      @MattCattrell 8 лет назад +4

      Maybe I'm just tired and didn't catch it in the video, can you explain what each of the four numbers represents in the real world? I just thought it through, using Kerbal Space Program as my mental model, is this correct: One number for "forward and backward" one for "side to side", one for "up and down" and one for "pitch and yaw"? I think that makes sense now... Maybe I need a nap and then I should watch this again... Thanks!

    • @EebstertheGreat
      @EebstertheGreat 8 лет назад +2

      +komrad36 I'm curious, when is it easier to use quaternion multiplication over rotation matrices?

    • @komrad36
      @komrad36 8 лет назад +10

      +Yassine Sayadi I'm still in school, actually. Dual degrees in aerospace engineering and theoretical physics. But I also work at NASA doing basic orbital and attitude propagation simulation and research and also work as an independent contractor for the NSF, doing satellite attitude determination and control (ADACS) for a satellite constellation called TRYAD. I write the software that my colleagues use to model satellite behavior in orbit.

  • @r6inhardt
    @r6inhardt 8 лет назад +3

    Excellent, thanks for sharing this. James did a great job of helping me to follow the math for Quaternions.

  • @picklesnorf101
    @picklesnorf101 8 лет назад +1

    This video was awesome!
    Thank you so much for posting this.
    Numberphile videos are always the highlight of my day.

  • @lawrencecalablaster568
    @lawrencecalablaster568 8 лет назад +1

    :D I have been waiting for a video about quaternions forever! Thank you so much, James & Brady!!!!

  • @michaelgodfrey4911
    @michaelgodfrey4911 8 лет назад +58

    I have to admit, I've got a bit of a crush on James. He's got such a charming voice and friendly personality, he comes across as a really nice guy you could chat with for ages . Also, I just love the way he acts when he gets excited about maths as well, the way he lights up and can't wait to tell us the next bit and he's almost bouncing with joy. Not a bad looker either on top of that

    • @youtubesuresuckscock
      @youtubesuresuckscock 6 лет назад +6

      That's what happens when Radiohead's signer teaches you maths.

    • @iris5403
      @iris5403 3 года назад +3

      @@youtubesuresuckscock Thomes Grorke

  • @piticea
    @piticea 8 лет назад +11

    YES, a video with james grime :D

  • @picknikbasket
    @picknikbasket 8 лет назад +1

    This one of Jame's best vids, really interesting and the extra footage leaves me wanting even more!

  • @chrisb3380
    @chrisb3380 8 лет назад +1

    Great to see you back James. Hoping for more vids from you in the future!!

  • @cubedude76
    @cubedude76 8 лет назад +31

    quaternonions are great in fajitas

  • @franciscomorilla9559
    @franciscomorilla9559 8 лет назад +3

    *New Numberphile video*
    Let's see it
    *James is in the video*
    YEAAAAHHHHHHH

  • @mikekuppen6256
    @mikekuppen6256 8 лет назад +2

    Man I love Dr Grime! Even if I don´t always understand him right away, it makes me happy to look at him being enthusiastic.

  • @Hewlett-Packard-Lovecraft
    @Hewlett-Packard-Lovecraft 5 лет назад +2

    What a brilliantly rendered explanation. Whenever I learn of mathematical functions this beautifully visceral, and ethereal, it's not unlike being violently shaken awake from a deep slumber and it submerges me back into the unsettling divinity of sacred Mathematica.
    As above, so bellow

  • @MrMakae90
    @MrMakae90 8 лет назад +18

    Please, a video on Octonions. Thanks.

    • @melficexd
      @melficexd 5 лет назад +3

      And who in the name of the higher realms need an 8 dimension vector?! 😂 *sits in the corner of a tesseract*

    • @stulora3172
      @stulora3172 5 лет назад +2

      @@melficexd physicists

  • @Madsy9
    @Madsy9 8 лет назад +19

    Quaternions is the way to rotate 3D points in pure mathematics, but in practical engineering and software development, Euler angles are also popular. The advantage of euler angles is that it's easy to understand as a set of combined 3D rotations. The advantage of quaternions is that it's only one single operation, so you avoid gimbal lock; a problem which haunts euler angles unless you design around it.
    But you can also combine both techniques. For example, in computer software like Blender and Maya, a user could specify rotations by using euler angles, which later is converted into quaternion form to avoid gimbal lock. And even later combined and turned into a 4x4 affine transformation matrix.
    Also notice that the quaternion rotation as described by James, "hph*" is a very formal description of the rotation. Which is interesting (math is interesting!), but not very practical. In practice you would combine multiple quaternions together, turn the final quaternion into matrix, and then do a matrix-vector multiplication.
    Regarding the "control" you lose as you go up in dimensions: Octonion and sedenion multiplication is neither commutative nor associative.
    I would love if Numberphile could make a video on this question though: Why are the most useful algebras of a dimension 2^N? It is a natural consequence of applying the Cayley-Dickson construction, but *why* do algebras of these exact dimensions (1,2,4,8 ..) have nicer properties (or is defined at all!) than say R^3, R^5 and R^7? Is conjunction undefined in the latter dimensions?

  • @sampadabhatnagar5818
    @sampadabhatnagar5818 2 года назад

    I really liked the way you did storytelling to explain the entire concept, makes it more fun to learn!

  • @naimulhaq9626
    @naimulhaq9626 8 лет назад

    Absolutely beautiful presentation. Thank you Dr. Grime.

  • @bazookah187
    @bazookah187 8 лет назад +92

    I'm a simple man, I see Dr. James Grimeon in the thumbnail, i click

    • @user-hx9gu5nh9p
      @user-hx9gu5nh9p 5 лет назад +2

      You are just a real idiot attempting to be funny by consciously playing the role of an average idiot

    • @damienjones1487
      @damienjones1487 5 лет назад +5

      @@user-hx9gu5nh9p dang, what an absolute intellectual you are

    • @user-hx9gu5nh9p
      @user-hx9gu5nh9p 5 лет назад +1

      harold the alien I appreciate your compliment and effort, considering you even had to edit a one line sentence.

    • @damienjones1487
      @damienjones1487 5 лет назад +1

      Wow, that really hurt my feeling

    • @damienjones1487
      @damienjones1487 5 лет назад +1

      @@user-hx9gu5nh9p im sueing

  • @TheScabbage
    @TheScabbage 8 лет назад +4

    Yaaaay finally, quaternions :D
    So I watch most RUclips videos at 2x speed...
    6:01
    Glorious.

  • @robertwatson4840
    @robertwatson4840 3 месяца назад

    Came here because I am reading Against the Day and this was a perfect explanation for a mathematical neophyte like myself who never got further in school than pre calculus. Thank you so much!

  • @MeteOguc
    @MeteOguc 8 лет назад +2

    This was such a clear and useful lecture! I should have learned about this relation about 10 years ago! Thank you!

  • @tomasouzaheuert
    @tomasouzaheuert 8 лет назад +15

    A + Bismuth + Carl Johnson + Donkey Kong

  • @swaggercr7
    @swaggercr7 8 лет назад +65

    So how many components for rotating in a 4 dimension? ...8??

    • @yxlxfxf
      @yxlxfxf 8 лет назад +22

      How about Graham dimensions?

    • @johngalmann9579
      @johngalmann9579 8 лет назад

      +SwaggerCR7 I would have thought it was on factor for scaling and one for each plane of rotation, but no I wonder what the system is...

    • @yxlxfxf
      @yxlxfxf 8 лет назад +14

      John Galmann seems like 2^(n-1) for n dimensions,idk why though...

    • @JackProudfoot
      @JackProudfoot 8 лет назад +24

      +Famfly So a zero'th dimension requires half a component? Interesting

    • @twilightknight123
      @twilightknight123 8 лет назад +9

      +SwaggerCR7 As said in the video, the next level is the octonions (8 components) which are quite useful in physics for describing the motion of a spin-1/2 particle (specifically the split octonions, though the octonions do have their uses with symmetry).
      +Famfly I believe for n rotating spacial dimensions, the pattern is an n-2 dimensional object to rotate around (2D plane around 0D point and 3D space around a 1D line) and 2^(n-1) components as that's the size of the smallest extension of the arithmetic ring.

  • @tmd4951
    @tmd4951 6 лет назад +1

    I listen a lot of videos to understand what quaternion is. And let's me say this is the best video that explain very clearly.

  • @spazmobot
    @spazmobot 8 лет назад

    James - your enthusiasm about math makes what would probably be a boring subject to most people, really interesting. Thanks for making it fun!

  • @CatnamedMittens
    @CatnamedMittens 8 лет назад +5

    He's alive!

  • @petros_adamopoulos
    @petros_adamopoulos 7 лет назад +6

    Been under that bridge on pilgrimage before it was cool.

  • @RyanGatts
    @RyanGatts 8 лет назад

    This is probably the first time numberphile has answered a question I have actively been wondering, and I love that the answer is so cool!

  • @theatheistpaladin
    @theatheistpaladin 8 лет назад +63

    Quaternions... Octerions... Just sounds like alien star trek races.

    • @egor.okhterov
      @egor.okhterov 8 лет назад +6

      Octonions :) 'Octo' means 'eight'.

    • @metleon
      @metleon 8 лет назад +3

      +Охтеров Егор Still sounds like an alien race.

    • @mannaggiacristo
      @mannaggiacristo 8 лет назад

      +TheAtheistPaladin Octonions*

    • @kaibeasley5965
      @kaibeasley5965 8 лет назад +1

      Are there hexadecions?

    • @mannaggiacristo
      @mannaggiacristo 8 лет назад +3

      Kai Beasley They're actually called Sedenions

  • @lawrencecalablaster568
    @lawrencecalablaster568 8 лет назад +8

    Anyone else think that James is awesome? :)

  • @culwin
    @culwin 8 лет назад +23

    Both i and j = sqrt(-1)!
    Finally mathematicians and engineers can find some agreement.

  • @RickusDomesticus
    @RickusDomesticus 2 года назад +1

    This is by far the simplest explanation I have ever watch

  • @firefoxmetzger9063
    @firefoxmetzger9063 7 лет назад +1

    This video literally explained in 12 minutes what my professors failed to explain for 6 month. Thanks so much for this!

  • @DragonMasterClay
    @DragonMasterClay 8 лет назад +9

    Why couldn't you have posted this one year ago. Last spring I was in Dublin, I would have gone to see the bridge!

  • @robertm.6243
    @robertm.6243 8 лет назад +4

    i really want him as my math professor...

  • @cts3md
    @cts3md 6 месяцев назад

    Awesome video very clear and well presented! Thank you so much for posting!

  • @izzomapping7430
    @izzomapping7430 8 лет назад

    So cool! I really was waiting for this!

  • @omrialkabetz5602
    @omrialkabetz5602 8 лет назад +20

    I don't understand something about the equation i^2=j^2=k^2=ijk=-1 :
    If you square ijk, will the result be: (ijk)^2 = (-1)^2 = 1?
    Or (ijk)^2 = (i^2)*(j^2)*(k^2) = (-1)*(-1)*(-1) = -1?

    • @jeffreyhersh908
      @jeffreyhersh908 8 лет назад +14

      +Omri Alkabetz Not quite. What it is saying with ijk = -1 is ij = k. Since i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = -1 this mean that i,j, and k anticommute, that is ji = -k. So (ijk)^2 = (ijk)(ijk) = (k^2)(k^2) = 1. Or (ijk)^2 = (ijk)(ijk) = (i^2)(jk)(jk) = -(i^2)(j^2)(k^2) = 1

    • @snowprinceintardis
      @snowprinceintardis 8 лет назад +5

      +Omri Alkabetz They are not actually just numbers, but they are described as 'root of -1'. They are really just unit vectors that tell us to go which way and how much. Since it is a 3 dimensional vector multiplication and they have 90 degrees between them, i and j multiplied 3 dimensionally would be ij=k. and the others i=jk, j=ik. What happens with taking the square of that is actually you've changed the parenthesis, and therefore changed the priority. It's not just simple mathematics anyone learns in highschool, it's rather more complex. But I am in my first year in college, so I may not be completely correct in explaining. I did not understand the i^2=ijk=-1 at first either.

    • @1ucasvb
      @1ucasvb 8 лет назад +26

      +Omri Alkabetz (i j k)^2 is not (i^2)(j^2)(k^2).
      (i j k)^2 is i j k i j k .
      You can't move the i's together to make i^2, for instance, because this property of "reordering" (commutativity) had to be given up in order to construct quaternions as a number system that is consistent.

    • @douggwyn9656
      @douggwyn9656 8 лет назад +3

      +Diego The Star Pirate (ijk)^2 = ijkijk = (k)ki(i) = (kk)(ii) = (-1)(-1) = 1. For octonions it's harder to do the algebra, because not only are they noncommutative but also nonassociative.

    • @Pianothegamer
      @Pianothegamer 8 лет назад

      +Omri Alkabetz I don't understand this properly either but I can tell you that:
      (ijk)^2 doesn't equal to (i^2)(j^2)(k^2) because (i^2), (j^2) and (k^2) are all equal to ijk
      So, (i^2)(j^2)(k^2) is actually equal to (ijk)^3.
      I believe that your first equation: (ijk)^2 = (-1)^2 = 1 was correct.

  • @tub944
    @tub944 8 лет назад +71

    Do a video on TREE(3) please

    • @branthebrave
      @branthebrave 8 лет назад +4

      +tub944 They did.

    • @tub944
      @tub944 8 лет назад +3

      +Brandon Boyer which one?

    • @U014B
      @U014B 8 лет назад +3

      Fiddy?

    • @ophello
      @ophello 8 лет назад +3

      +Brandon Boyer No they didn't. They mentioned it by name once but they never analyzed it.

    • @mannaggiacristo
      @mannaggiacristo 8 лет назад +4

      +Brandon Boyer No. There is a video (maybe more than one) about Graham's number in which they mention it but nothing more.

  • @dusandragovic09srb
    @dusandragovic09srb 6 лет назад

    Love this channel! And people on it! Keep up the good work!

  • @Garvish_Parekh
    @Garvish_Parekh 6 месяцев назад

    Finally a great video, after spending soo many days reading blogs and watching tons of videos which were so complicated from the get go, still bit confused about 3D rotation, but I am much more clear and have basic understanding to understand more complex material.

  • @whitherwhence
    @whitherwhence 7 лет назад +10

    For your complaint abput the name "complex number", in Hebrew we basically call them compound numbers. So, ha. Neener neener.

    • @krakenmetzger
      @krakenmetzger 4 года назад +2

      Yeah but in England we have foreskin. Neener Neener

  • @sethgartner5057
    @sethgartner5057 8 лет назад +7

    Unless I completely misunderstood, the "i" he refers to represents the square root of 1, but what do "j" and "k" equal? Like from a math standpoint, or are they just variables following "i" in the alphabet?

    • @AnthonyMata
      @AnthonyMata 8 лет назад +1

      i means imaginary number and its square root of one.

    • @ThunderWorkStudioAMGE
      @ThunderWorkStudioAMGE 8 лет назад +1

      +Anthony Mata square root of minus one

    • @ben-devries
      @ben-devries 8 лет назад +3

      +Anthony Mata i is the square root of -1, the square root of +1 would be a real number

    • @AnthonyMata
      @AnthonyMata 8 лет назад +1

      +ThunderWork Studio yeah I forgot the neg sign since sqrt of one is one lol

    • @sethgartner5057
      @sethgartner5057 8 лет назад

      +Ben DeVries yeah I realized i messed up, i is the square of -1, but that still doesnt answer what j and k are

  • @ludmilgrigorov2527
    @ludmilgrigorov2527 8 лет назад

    This is exactly what I needed. Thank you!

  • @Titanknox
    @Titanknox 8 лет назад

    thank you so much for this video, ive been doing lots of video game programming recently, and i thought i new quaternions, but this demonstration completely locked it down.

  • @ragnkja
    @ragnkja 8 лет назад +22

    So to include another dimension of rotation, you need twice as many terms.

    • @douggwyn9656
      @douggwyn9656 8 лет назад +1

      +Nillie It depends on whether you just want the new location, or the orientation and the location.

    • @suremarc
      @suremarc 8 лет назад +1

      Not exactly. The first thing to note is that rotations in the complex plane are done via multiplication, whereas with quaternions one takes the (group theoretic) conjugation by an element 'q', i.e. x rotated by q is qxq^-1. With octonions you get 7 dimensional rotations, although there are some caveats.

    • @kevincarmody1207
      @kevincarmody1207 8 лет назад +2

      +Nillie no, in 4D you only need quaternions, but with fewer restrictions that in 3D. See my reply to +SwaggerCR7.

    • @kevincarmody1207
      @kevincarmody1207 8 лет назад

      +Matthew Cramerus group theory is not necessary. Quaternion multiplication is an extension of complex multiplication in exactly the same way that complex multiplication is an extension of real multiplication. The notation q^-1 means reciprocal in quaternions just as it does in complex numbers, whereas the conjugate is different and is denoted q*. The conjugate is used for 3D rotation, as the video explains.

    • @suremarc
      @suremarc 8 лет назад

      3D rotations via quaternions are given by inner automorphisms of H, which form a group under composition.

  • @UCH6H9FiXnPsuMhyIKDOlsZA
    @UCH6H9FiXnPsuMhyIKDOlsZA 8 лет назад +6

    ...Why can't you just use 3 -- yaw/pitch/roll? Or does that only describe rotational position (that's not the word is it) as opposed to a rotation?

    • @komrad36
      @komrad36 8 лет назад +5

      +TheNewbiedoodle You can - those are called Euler angles and are indeed the smallest (least memory required) way to represent an attitude. They have some disadvantages, however. I wrote a similar answer in depth as a reply to EebstertheGreat above. Cheers!

    • @JasonEwton
      @JasonEwton 8 лет назад +4

      +komrad36 With Euler angles, I think you run into something called "Gimbal Lock"?

    • @Thomcat
      @Thomcat 8 лет назад +1

      you also need to define your rotation order when expressing a rotation

    • @GMLscripts
      @GMLscripts 8 лет назад +4

      +TheNewbiedoodle To add to what the others have said, quaternion interpolation also rotates an object with a natural-looking, uniform angular velocity, something that could be very difficult to achieve with yaw, pitch, roll.

  • @radenzito
    @radenzito 4 года назад

    Omg Dr James Grime. This guy has born to make others learn and understand. Thank you a lot for your work

  • @edilsonfernandes4703
    @edilsonfernandes4703 8 лет назад

    Incredible explanation...Thank you so much!!

  • @davejacob5208
    @davejacob5208 7 лет назад +4

    is there actually a proof that shows that it is impossible to make the rotation with threedimensional numbers?

    • @uelssom
      @uelssom 7 лет назад

      Dave Jacob you need 3 rotational axis to fully rotate a 3d object. The "imaginary" (quotes bc i dont know how they call j and k) provide such axis.So you need 3 imaginary, plus the real = 4 dimension numbers

    • @davejacob5208
      @davejacob5208 7 лет назад

      uelssom is there a proof?

    • @6exG
      @6exG 7 лет назад +2

      google 'gimbal lock''

    • @hichamelyassami1718
      @hichamelyassami1718 7 лет назад

      in robotics it's called 'wrist flip' or 'wrist singularity', it is when the path through which the robot is traveling causes the first and third axes of the robot's wrist to line up, the second wrist axis then attempts to spin 180° in zero time to maintain the orientation of the end effector...the result of a singularity can be quite dramatic and can have adverse effects on the robot arm, the end effector, and the process.

    • @hichamelyassami1718
      @hichamelyassami1718 7 лет назад +1

      In formal language, gimbal lock occurs because the map from Euler angles to rotations (topologically, from the 3-torus T3 to the real projective space RP3) is not a covering map - it is not a local homeomorphism at every point, and thus at some points the rank (degrees of freedom) must drop below 3, at which point gimbal lock occurs.

  • @mighty8357
    @mighty8357 8 лет назад +6

    Anyone know the exact reason why a 3-dim number is not enough? Dr Grime just said that we need a 4th dimension without say why (other than it wouldn't work if we have 3)

    • @komrad36
      @komrad36 8 лет назад +4

      +Phil Diesch You can use just 3 - those are called Euler angles and are indeed the smallest (least memory required) way to represent an attitude. They have some disadvantages, however. I wrote a similar answer in depth as a reply to EebstertheGreat above. Cheers!

    • @eideticex
      @eideticex 8 лет назад +1

      +Phil Diesch It comes down to defining space. In 2 dimensions there is only a positive and negative rotation you can perform, clockwise or counter-clockwise. The axis is already defined by the topology of the space. In 3 dimensions however you can rotate around all axes freely, so to perform a rotation you must defined which axis to rotate around and how far to rotate. Notice in the math if you leave out sin(theta) you have coordinates, draw a line from 0 to those coordinates and it forms the axis that the quaternion will rotate around.

    • @DreadKyller
      @DreadKyller 8 лет назад +2

      +Phil Diesch 3 dimensional numbers can represent a rotation in 3d space, however there's a few oddities with it:
      1) The order of the rotations matter, if you rotate along the x then the y then the z, you'll have a different ending rotation than if you rotate along the z then the x then the y.
      2) You can't easily rotate around a specific line, with quarternions you can place a line through the object and rotate the object around that pole, no matter the angle of the pole, with eulers you're limited to rotating on the 3 dimensional axis, and thus doing the same is complicated and ends up being the same math as is behind quarternions.

    • @Samudbhava
      @Samudbhava 7 лет назад

      does that mean that in 4D there are 8 axes?

    • @FeaturingMaxAsMax
      @FeaturingMaxAsMax 6 лет назад

      The exact reason is that rotations in 3-space form a 3-dimensional Lie group, called SO(3). The elements of this group are 3 x 3 matrices, hence they appear to depend on 9 parameters. However, it turns out that the matrix representation is really wasteful. The slicker way is to realize that SO(3) can be double-covered by the unit sphere S^3, which sits in 4-space, so you *only* need 4 numbers. I think that Dr. Grimes should have said it that way. The miracle is not that you need 4 parameters instead of 3 -- the miracle is that you need 4 parameters instead of 9. A slightly more handwavey way to say it is that a rotation is defined by four parameters: an axis of rotation, given by v1 * i + v2 * j + v3 * k (which has three parameters) and an angle of rotation, given by theta (the fourth parameter).

  • @D4v1ks
    @D4v1ks 6 лет назад

    Great video.I always enjoy to understand why something works, instead of just using it.Thanks

  • @ShayBowskill
    @ShayBowskill 8 лет назад

    Has anyone else noticed how much the very slight camera shake contributes to how cool these videos are? Makes such a huge difference if you imagine how this would be without it

  • @Durakken
    @Durakken 8 лет назад +7

    I can follow you until you get to the quanternians...cuz you explain what they are but not how it works... It's kinda annoying cuz I'd really like to understand how the math works to go along with the understanding of other parts. Something tells me that if I had learned trigonometry in HS I'd know this or if I remembered what cosigns and tangents were this would be a lot easier to get.
    The sad this is, to me the whole need 4 number thing to me is obvious once the first part is explained but you seem really excited about it that this was such a hard problem.

    • @egor.okhterov
      @egor.okhterov 8 лет назад

      I don't know if it makes anything easier, but here we go. Imagine we have a point on a plane and we want to know how it will be seen on the coordinate axis, if we know its angle of rotation. From the perspective of the axis X this point has moved cosine distance from the origin. From the perspective of the axis Y this point has moved sine distance from the origin. Now, if we magnify cosine on the X axis so that it becomes equal to one, what will happen to sine? The answer is the sine becomes equal to the tangent. If we scale sine instead, the cosine will become cotangent.

    • @MattCattrell
      @MattCattrell 8 лет назад

      +Охтеров Егор uh, I'm not the guy you replied to, but since my highest math was algebra 2 around 15 years ago, this didn't really help... Not sure you can explain all that succinctly without pictures... Thanks for trying though!

    • @Durakken
      @Durakken 8 лет назад

      That suffers the problem that most people have. You try to explain it in a way that someone who already understands it understands you, but anyone else won't.
      Anyways... Am I to believe that i, j, and k mean 90 degree rotation, or more specifically move along the "dimension" that is represented by that given terms... The first being x, second being y, third being z (depth), and fourth being rotation.
      I don't get the usage of i otherwise or the "multiplication" he uses either, but I only loosely listened there and know that multiplication can do things that look odd on the surface.

    • @Durakken
      @Durakken 8 лет назад

      Matt Cattrell Similar. I only took algebra cuz I was forced to. I didn't find it hard, but I hated it and did as little as possible...and several times less than ^.^ The biggest issue I find with math in general is the terminology and the lack of connection to an example that makes it easy to understand and in this case it is unfortunate because it has an obvious practical example here.

    • @zh84
      @zh84 8 лет назад +2

      This video isn't really enough to explain how it all works. If you want more detail, I recommend an excellent book called "Yearning for the Impossible", which has a chapter on how quaternions were invented and, in particular, why they have to have four dimensions. Briefly, if you have only 1, i and j, what is i * j? Quaternions get round this by having i * j = k, and so on.

  • @sohee7597
    @sohee7597 4 года назад +3

    6:02 is he speaking in 4 dimentions?

  • @carlosrojas5125
    @carlosrojas5125 6 лет назад

    Thanks for the explanation. It was an exquisite presentation

  • @redouanekachach9181
    @redouanekachach9181 5 лет назад

    Simple and straightforward explanation. Thanks Sir.

  • @iTzDeyo
    @iTzDeyo 5 лет назад +38

    Who else is came here after watching Joe Rogan and Brett Weinstein talking about this??

    • @charliesmash
      @charliesmash 5 лет назад

      iTz DeYo right here

    • @leoarnstein9444
      @leoarnstein9444 5 лет назад +1

      Eric Weinstein

    • @ChuckDownfield2727
      @ChuckDownfield2727 5 лет назад

      Eric not Brett mon frere

    • @b.f.skinner4383
      @b.f.skinner4383 3 года назад

      except here Dr Grime doesn't attempt to over complicate this using esoteric language and far fetched analogies

  • @streak1burntrubber
    @streak1burntrubber 8 лет назад +10

    Real numbers... stupid name.
    Imaginary numbers... stupid name...
    Complex numbers... stupid name...........
    We need to get better people to come up with names for this stuff.

    • @harry_page
      @harry_page 7 лет назад +8

      How about direct numbers instead of real numbers and lateral numbers instead of imaginary numbers? Those names are what Gauss came up with I think

    • @sebastiangudino9377
      @sebastiangudino9377 6 лет назад +2

      Dude, Hypercomplex Number (The superset of quaternions) is a really cool name!

    • @mydogskips2
      @mydogskips2 5 лет назад

      +Tsavorite Prince I like that, does it include 3D numbers, or is it just 2D?
      Isn't a plane only two dimensional(and thus wouldn't a planar number define only a 2D space)?
      I mean, isn't a complex number just a number with a real component and an imaginary component? So this wouldn't necessarily mean it's a 3D number. Wouldn't a third component/coordinate be needed?

    • @AttilaAsztalos
      @AttilaAsztalos 5 лет назад

      Careful there. That's how you get Strange quarks and Charm quarks...

    • @jeerdace8625
      @jeerdace8625 5 лет назад +1

      Tsavorite Prince Don't imaginary numbers fall under the category of complex numbers? Therefore, bilinear numbers would be planar numbers right? Or have I hit my head against a wall?

  • @Kazetomosuki
    @Kazetomosuki 7 лет назад

    Thank U!
    I enjoyed this one very much and had fun playing around with it in my mind (:

  • @torgo_
    @torgo_ 8 лет назад

    This is awesome. I've spent a lot of time in Unity (game development software) fooling around with Quaternions but I never quite understood it. Very fascinating! I'm surprised my lecturers never covered this.

  • @mnada72
    @mnada72 5 лет назад

    I had no idea that it's possible for me to understand this topic that easily, and this proves that everything is understandable as long as there is the one who can explain it

  •  6 лет назад

    As a 3d artist who rotates stuff in 3 dimensions everyday, I can say I felt in love with you and your passionate way of explaining quaternions

  • @elfferich1212
    @elfferich1212 6 лет назад

    This is by far the best video on quaternions ever.

  • @mini_bunney
    @mini_bunney Год назад

    finally I found an actually understandable explanation for what a quaternion is, thank you!

  • @sunnysood8702
    @sunnysood8702 8 лет назад

    Great video! More please!

  • @Daigotsumax
    @Daigotsumax 8 лет назад

    Fantastic video! I wish I could attend your lectures :)

  • @LeeMinardi
    @LeeMinardi 5 лет назад +1

    A good explanation. I liked the way the rotation in 2D is used to explain the transformation from one orientation to another. He could have dwelled on the final solution at 10:40 a little bit to let the viewer soak it in ( and not hide it with his hand). I would also suggest holding a physical object at the start rather than waving hands so much to reduce the level of abstraction necessary to visualize. As a 3D CAD guy I use quats quite a bit as they do not suffer from gimbal lock as found with homogeneous transformation matrices. That factor, and the speed of execution compared to traditional matrix manipulation, make them the preferred controllers for 3D animation.

  • @oken8501
    @oken8501 8 лет назад

    Wow, you made me understand what are complex numbers for... something no math teacher ever managed to do or actually even tried before.

  • @scififanman
    @scififanman 8 лет назад

    Being a CAD technician I found this video very insightful. After I went to college to become a CAD tech for mechanical engineering/design, I discovered all the work I was doing involved 3D, whereas older, more experienced techs often only worked in 2D. All of my work involved modeling in 3D, and some of the CAD programs like Alibre were very odd about how they manipulated things in 3D space. But knowing this form of math helps explain some of the operational quirkiness certain CAD programs have, when you're working in 3D.

  • @9000fail
    @9000fail 8 лет назад

    This channel never fails to blow my mind

  • @American_Moon_at_Odysee_com
    @American_Moon_at_Odysee_com 2 года назад

    That was supremely clear. Thank you!

  • @kinanali2668
    @kinanali2668 5 лет назад

    U can't imagine how much u helped me through this video
    Thanks

  • @beat461
    @beat461 8 лет назад

    this guy is always so full of enthusiasm

  • @woobmonkey
    @woobmonkey 8 лет назад

    First, new SingingBanana vids, now Dr. Grime on Numberphile! Quite the week for the most awesome maths popularizer on the internet!

  • @denizaydinmusic
    @denizaydinmusic 3 года назад

    You are an angel man!!! The clearest explanation i've ever seen.

  • @HyperMario64
    @HyperMario64 7 лет назад

    It actually helped me a lot.
    Thank you !

  • @olafv.2741
    @olafv.2741 4 года назад

    Great video. A nice demonstration of mind over matter: you stopped the clock at 16:00.

  • @daviddemar8749
    @daviddemar8749 8 лет назад

    loved this bc I learned a new thing thank you !

  • @HarhaMedia
    @HarhaMedia 8 лет назад

    I use quaternions to present orientations of coordinate frames in all of my 3D rendering related programming projects and I absolutely love them.

  • @VadimHarenco
    @VadimHarenco 7 лет назад +1

    THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!
    I finally understood it! Great Explanation!!