math and physics play

New video: Velocity and angular momentum with geometric algebra

September 7, 2023 math and physics play , , , , ,

 

In this video, we compute velocity in a radial representation \( \mathbf{x} = r \mathbf{\hat{r}} \).

We use a scalar radial coordinate \( r \), and leave all the angular dependence implicitly encoded in a radial unit vector \( \mathbf{\hat{r}} \).

We find the geometric algebra structure of the \( \mathbf{\hat{r}}’ \) in two different ways, to find

\( \mathbf{\hat{r}}’ = \frac{\mathbf{\hat{r}}}{r} \left( \mathbf{\hat{r}} \wedge \mathbf{\hat{x}}’ \right), \)

then derive the conventional triple vector cross product equivalent for reference:

\( \mathbf{\hat{r}}’ = \left( \mathbf{\hat{r}} \times \mathbf{\hat{x}}’ \right) \times \frac{\mathbf{\hat{r}}}{r}. \)

We then compute kinetic energy in this representation, and show how a bivector-valued angular momentum \( L = \mathbf{x} \wedge \mathbf{p} \), falls naturally from that computation, where we have

\( \frac{m}{2} \mathbf{v}^2 = \frac{1}{2 m} {(m r’)}^2 – \frac{1}{2 m r^2 } L^2. \)

Prerequisites: calculus (derivatives and chain rule), and geometric algebra basics (vector multiplication, commutation relationships for vectors and bivectors in a plane, wedge and cross product equivalencies, …)

Errata: at around 4:12 I used \( \mathbf{r} \) instead of \( \mathbf{x} \), then kept doing so every time after that when the value for \( L \) was stated.

As well as being posted to Google’s censorship-tube, this video can also be found on odysee.

Vanity press: Exploring physics with geometric algebra

August 27, 2023 math and physics play

I just printed a copy of my ancient notes compilations for geometric algebra and physics, a compilation of old blog posts, using kindle direct publishing.

Amazon author copies don’t seem to be available in Canada anymore, so I had to buy a regular copy (printed in Bolton, Ontario, Canada!), but did so my setting the price as low as possible on amazon.ca (about $20 CAD each).  That means that I got bound and printed books, with 469+503 pages, in 8.5×11″ format for about $40 (buying an author copy from the US amazon.com would have cost more after shipping and currency conversion.)  I don’t think that I could have gotten bound print copies that cheap at one of the St George copy houses that service the university.

Now that I have my copies, I’ll un-publish these from amazon, so that nobody buys them by mistake.  I just wanted a copy of each as a reference for myself (as I do refer to parts of them sometimes — like the Pauli matrix/GA-equivalents writeup.)

This leaves me with 9 active titles on amazon (one is my book, and the rest are all course notes.)

Geometric algebra: a very short video introduction.

August 1, 2023 math and physics play , ,


Here’s another geometric algebra video, weighing in at a massive 2:29 (minutes.)

This video is a very short introduction to geometric algebra, showing the most basic concepts and how to apply them to the 2D geometric algebra of the Euclidean plane. Those concepts aren’t developed further in this video, but the idea is just to show the most basic consequences of the definitions.

Prerequisites: basic vector algebra (basis, vector space, dot product space, arrow representation of vectors, graphical vector addition, …)

If you watched yesterday’s video, don’t both watching this one, since it is extracted from that with no additions.

You can find the video on Google’s censorship-tube, and on odysee.

Video: Circular velocity and acceleration with geometric algebra

July 31, 2023 math and physics play , , , ,

Months ago, I used Manim to create a outline a geometric algebra treatment of the derivation of the circular velocity and acceleration formulas that you would find in a first year undergrad physics course.  I never published it, since overlaying audio and getting the timing of the audio and video right is hard (at least for me.)  I’m also faced with the difficulty of not being able to speak properly when attempting to record myself.
Anyways, I finally finished the audio overlays (it was sitting waiting for me to record the final 10s of audio!), and have posted this little 11 minute video, which includes:
  • A reminder of what circular coordinates are.
  • A brief outline of what is meant by each of the circular basis vectors.
  • A derivation of those basis vectors (just basic geometry, and no GA.)
  • A brief introduction to geometric algebra, and geometric algebra for a plane, including the “imaginary” \( i = \Be_1 \Be_2 \), and it’s use for rotation and polar form.
  • How to express the circular basis vectors in polar form.
  • Application of all the ideas above to compute velocity and acceleration.
  • Circular coordinate examples of velocity and acceleration.
It probably doesn’t actually make sense to try to pack all these ideas into one video, but oh well — that’s what I did.
You can find the video on google’s censorship-tube, and on odysee.

Complex-pair representation of GA(2,0) multivectors

June 15, 2023 math and physics play , ,

[Click here for a PDF version of this post]

We found previously that a complex pair representation of a GA(2,0) multivector had a compact geometric product realization. Now that we know the answer, let’s work backwards from that representation to verify that everything matches our expectations.

We are representing a multivector of the form
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:20}
M = a + b \Be_1 \Be_2 + x \Be_1 + y \Be_2,
\end{equation}
as the pair of complex numbers
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:40}
M \sim \lr{ a + i b, x + i y }.
\end{equation}
Given a pair of multivectors with this complex representation
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:60}
\begin{aligned}
M &= \lr{ z_1, z_2 } \\
N &= \lr{ q_1, q_2 },
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
we found that our geometric product representation was
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:80}
M N \sim
\lr{ z_1 q_1 + z_2^\conj q_2, z_2 q_1 + z_1^\conj q_2 }.
\end{equation}

Our task is now to verify that this is correct. Let’s set
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:100}
\begin{aligned}
z_1 &= a + i b \\
q_1 &= a’ + i b’ \\
z_2 &= x + i y \\
q_2 &= x’ + i y’,
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
and proceed with an expansion of the even grade components
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:120}
\begin{aligned}
z_1 q_1 + z_2^\conj q_2
&=
\lr{ a + i b } \lr{ a’ + i b’ }
+
\lr{ x – i y } \lr{ x’ + i y’ } \\
&=
a a’ – b b’ + x x’ + y y’
+ i \lr{ b a’ + a b’ + x y’ – y x’ } \\
&=
x x’ + y y’ + i \lr{ x y’ – y x’ } + \quad a a’ – b b’ + i \lr{ b a’ + a b’ }.
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
The first terms is clearly the geometric product of two vectors
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:140}
\lr{ x \Be_1 + y \Be_2 } \lr{ x’ \Be_1 + y’ \Be_2 }
=
x x’ + y y’ + i \lr{ x y’ – y x’ },
\end{equation}
and we are able to verify that the second parts can be factored too
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:160}
\lr{ a + b i } \lr{ a’ + b’ i }
=
a a’ – b b’ + i \lr{ b a’ + a b’ }.
\end{equation}
This leaves us with
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:180}
\gpgrade{ M N }{0,2} = \gpgradeone{ M } \gpgradeone{ N } + \gpgrade{ M }{0,2} \gpgrade{ N }{0,2},
\end{equation}
as expected. This part of our representation checks out.

Now, let’s look at the vector component of our representation. First note that to convert from our complex representation of our vector \( z = x + i y \) to the standard basis representation of our vector, we need only multiply by \( \Be_1 \) on the left, for example:
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:220}
\Be_1 \lr{ x + i y } = \Be_1 x + \Be_1 \Be_1 \Be_2 y = \Be_1 x + \Be_2 y.
\end{equation}
So, for the vector component of our assumed product representation, we have
\begin{equation}\label{eqn:bicomplexCl20:200}
\begin{aligned}
\Be_1 \lr{ z_2 q_1 + z_1^\conj q_2 }
&=
\Be_1 \lr{ x + i y } \lr{ a’ + i b’ }
+
\Be_1 \lr{ a – i b } \lr{ x’ + i y’ } \\
&=
\Be_1 \lr{ x + i y } \lr{ a’ + i b’ }
+
\lr{ a + i b } \Be_1 \lr{ x’ + i y’ } \\
&=
\gpgradeone{ M } \gpgrade{ N}{0,2}
+ \gpgrade{ M }{0,2} \gpgradeone{ N},
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
as expected.

Our complex-pair realization of the geometric product checks out.