Orthogonal transformation

In linear algebra, an orthogonal transformation is a 2 References

linear transformation T : V V on a real inner prod-
uct space V, that preserves the inner product. That is, for [1] Rowland, Todd. Orthogonal Transformation. Math-
each pair u, v of elements of V, we have[1] World. Retrieved 4 May 2012.

u, v = T u, T v .

Since the lengths of vectors and the angles between them

are dened through the inner product, orthogonal trans-
formations preserve lengths of vectors and angles be-
tween them. In particular, orthogonal transformations
map orthonormal bases to orthonormal bases.
Orthogonal transformations in two- or three-dimensional
Euclidean space are sti rotations, reections, or com-
binations of a rotation and a reection (also known as
improper rotations). Reections are transformations that
exchange left and right, similar to mirror images. The
matrices corresponding to proper rotations (without re-
ection) have determinant +1. Transformations with re-
ection are represented by matrices with determinant 1.
This allows the concept of rotation and reection to be
generalized to higher dimensions.
In nite-dimensional spaces, the matrix representation
(with respect to an orthonormal basis) of an orthogonal
transformation is an orthogonal matrix. Its rows are mu-
tually orthogonal vectors with unit norm, so that the rows
constitute an orthonormal basis of V. The columns of the
matrix form another orthonormal basis of V.
The inverse of an orthogonal transformation is another
orthogonal transformation. Its matrix representation is
the transpose of the matrix representation of the original
transformation.

1 See also

Improper rotation

Inner product

Linear transformation

Orthogonal matrix

Unitary transformation

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