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Title: Quaternions and Rotation Sequences: A Primer with Applications to Orbits, Aerospace and Virtual Reality
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Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
List Price: $45.00
Our Price: $35.60
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| Customer Reviews: |
| Quaternions and Rotation Sequences: A Primer with Applications to Orbits, Aerospace and Virtual Reality by Princeton University Press Outstanding |
Excellent book. Well written. Clear. Thoughtful.
Plenty of examples. I would highly recommend it!
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| Quaternions and Rotation Sequences: A Primer with Applications to Orbits, Aerospace and Virtual Reality by Princeton University Press A math book you can read in bed |
There are many other reviews that discuss (and applaud) the merits of Kuipers' treatment of the subject, and I agree with them. Rather than add a "me too", I wanted to treat some of the features of this book that make it approachable.
This book is not written for the layman, you do need a fair grounding in matrix methods, complex variables, and rotations. If you remember the basics you should be fine because Kuipers reminds you of special theorems and properties as they are used. Notation is kept simple and unconfusing.
Of particular note, he uses the margins in a novel way. Most math texts number their equations and refer to them often. The reader spends a lot of time flipping back and forth. Kuipers frequently puts referenced equations, needed properties, and other information in the margins where they are needed. This minimizes the usual back and forth and enables a marginally sophisticated reader to actually read and learn something new in bed. |
| Quaternions and Rotation Sequences: A Primer with Applications to Orbits, Aerospace and Virtual Reality by Princeton University Press Very Nice |
Book is more or less what all the glowing 4 and 5 stars say it is. I would like to add a 1859 quote from William Rowan Hamilton about his Quaternions in a note to Peter Guthrie Tait (professor and friend of James Maxwell):
"Could anything be simpler or more satisfactory? Don't you feel, as well as think, that we are on a right track, and shall be thanked hereafter. Never mind when." |
| Quaternions and Rotation Sequences: A Primer with Applications to Orbits, Aerospace and Virtual Reality by Princeton University Press All four elements... |
| Quaternions are not as intuitive as 3x3 matrices however this book give a strong understanding of quaternions so that the reader can let go of the 3x3 matrix and successfully, in my case at least, change over to only using quaternions. This has proven useful in my simulations for, and firmware code for, satellite attitude determination and control. In the version I have of this book, there are some mistakes that hopefully will be corrected, but the mistakes are obvious and easy to overlook. I hate quaternions but they are powerful tools in solving real world problems. This book made quaternions interesting and bearable. If you already have a really good understanding of quaternions, this book might help, but it has a long introduction into quaternions so you might want to review the book using the online outline to see if it actually covers more than what you might already know. |
| Quaternions and Rotation Sequences: A Primer with Applications to Orbits, Aerospace and Virtual Reality by Princeton University Press Quaternions for you |
This is an excellent book, it's right up there with Gilbert Strang's Linear Algebra texts.
Want to understand quaternions and rotational matrices, well this is the book for you. Starts with the basics, coordinated transformations and such, and moves at a reasonable pace into quaternions. Others at work, looking at this book felt that they understood the text. Interestingly these were software engineers that never really gotten basic college calculus. Never could understand why many software people are so light on math. Different part of the brain I guess. Author vs. engineer.
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| Quaternions and Rotation Sequences: A Primer with Applications to Orbits, Aerospace and Virtual Reality by Princeton University Press Product Description |
Ever since the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton introduced quaternions in the nineteenth century--a feat he celebrated by carving the founding equations into a stone bridge--mathematicians and engineers have been fascinated by these mathematical objects. Today, they are used in applications as various as describing the geometry of spacetime, guiding the Space Shuttle, and developing computer applications in virtual reality. In this book, J. B. Kuipers introduces quaternions for scientists and engineers who have not encountered them before and shows how they can be used in a variety of practical situations. The book is primarily an exposition of the quaternion, a 4-tuple, and its primary application in a rotation operator. But Kuipers also presents the more conventional and familiar 3 x 3 (9-element) matrix rotation operator. These parallel presentations allow the reader to judge which approaches are preferable for specific applications. The volume is divided into three main parts. The opening chapters present introductory material and establish the book's terminology and notation. The next part presents the mathematical properties of quaternions, including quaternion algebra and geometry. It includes more advanced special topics in spherical trigonometry, along with an introduction to quaternion calculus and perturbation theory, required in many situations involving dynamics and kinematics. In the final section, Kuipers discusses state-of-the-art applications. He presents a six degree-of-freedom electromagnetic position and orientation transducer and concludes by discussing the computer graphics necessary for the development of applications in virtual reality. |
