Understanding non-component-wise operations
Not all vector operations are component-wise; some operations require more math. In this section, you are going to learn how to implement common vector operations that are not component-based. These operations are as follows:
- How to find the length of a vector
- What a normal vector is
- How to normalize a vector
- How to find the angle between two vectors
- How to project vectors and what rejection is
- How to reflect vectors
- What the cross product is and how to implement it
Let's take a look at each one in more detail.
Vector length
Vectors represent a direction and a magnitude; the magnitude of a vector is its length. The formula for finding the length of a vector comes from trigonometry. In the following figure, a two-dimensional vector is broken down into parallel and perpendicular components. Notice how this forms a right triangle, with the vector being the hypotenuse:
Figure...
