How can I calculate the cross product of two vectors without the use of programming libraries?
E.g given vectors a = (1, 2, 3) and b = (4, 5, 6)
6 Answers
are you asking about the formula for the cross product? Or how to do indexing and lists in python?
The basic idea is that you access the elements of a and b as a[0], a[1], a[2], etc. (for x, y, z) and that you create a new list with [element_0, element_1, ...]. We can also wrap it in a function.
On the vector side, the cross product is the antisymmetric product of the elements, which also has a nice geometrical interpretation.
Anyway, it would be better to give you hints and let you figure it out, but that's not really the SO way, so...
def cross(a, b):
c = [a[1]*b[2] - a[2]*b[1],
a[2]*b[0] - a[0]*b[2],
a[0]*b[1] - a[1]*b[0]]
return c
import numpy as np
a = np.array([1,0,0])
b = np.array([0,1,0])
#print the result
print(np.cross(a,b))
If you want to implement the cross product yourself you may see or a math/physics book. Shortly (a1, a2, a3) X (b1, b2, b3) = (a2*b3-a3*b2, a3*b1-a1*b3, a1*b2-a2*b1)
for multiple dimensions, this might work;
def crossProd(a,b):
dimension = len(a)
c = []
for i in range(dimension):
c.append(0)
for j in range(dimension):
if j <> i:
for k in range(dimension):
if k <> i:
if k > j:
c[i] += a[j]*b[k]
elif k < j:
c[i] -= a[j]*b[k]
return c
I did it like this:
def cross_product(u,v):
dim = len(u)
s = []
for i in range(dim):
if i == 0:
j,k = 1,2
s.append(u[j]*v[k] - u[k]*v[j])
elif i == 1:
j,k = 2,0
s.append(u[j]*v[k] - u[k]*v[j])
else:
j,k = 0,1
s.append(u[j]*v[k] - u[k]*v[j])
return s
I defined a successror funtion z,This is to help write the formulas of the cross product In a slightly consise way.here is the code
from numpy import zeros
def z(a):
if a == 0 or a == 1:
return a+1
elif a == 2:
return 0
n = 3
i = 0
v = zeros(n, float)
v1 = zeros(n, float)
v2 = zeros(n, float)
v1[0] = float(input("enter x component of v1 "))
v1[1] = float(input("enter y component of v1 "))
v1[2] = float(input("enter z component of v1 "))
v2[0] = float(input("enter x component of v2 "))
v2[1] = float(input("enter y component of v2 "))
v2[2] = float(input("enter z component of v2 "))
def cp(x, y):
global i
while i < n:
v[i] = x[z(i)]*y[z(z(i))]-x[z(z(i))]*y[z(i)]
i = i + 1
return v
ans = cp(v1, v2)
print(ans)