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Vector Rotations around Arbitrary Vector

To rotate a vector around an arbitrary vector the coordinate system has to be rotated such that the z-axis is parallel to the vector , then we rotate vector around the z-axis and then rotate the coordinate system to its original direction. The equations describing this transformation are the following [5]:

vector :


the rotation matrix for rotating z-axis to be parallel to :


the rotation matrix for rotating by angle around z-axis:


rotating vector by angle around :


when rotating vector around z-axis the equation is simple:



Jouko Vuoskoski
Thu Sep 14 20:02:11 MET DST 1995