Formula to calculate the angle of 2 lines on a plane from the perspective of another plane rotated around the X axis

3dangle

I have 2 lines in a 2D XY plane (plane 1) that are 135° apart and meet at a point. If I create a new XY plane (plane 2) equal to plane 1 but which is rotated on the X axis by x° (e.g. 30°), I want to know the formula to calculate the angle between the 2 lines on plane 1 if they are projected onto plane 2. I expect the angle will be less on plane 2 than the angle on plane 1.

An image conveys 1000 words:

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This is modelled in Fusion 360, and if I rotate Object B around the x axis by 30°, then the angle becomes 130.9° instead of 135°. I want to know the formula for calculating this?

Best Answer

Let the origin be at the intersection of the $3$ planes.

I follow the $xyz$-orientations of the first diagram: upward as positive $x$, leftward as positive $y$, and out from screen as positive $z$.

Along the plane of object $A$, points have positive $x$- and $z$-coordinates that satisfy:

$$(x ,y ,x\tan(180^\circ-135^\circ)) = (x, y, x)$$

Along the plane of the new object $B$ that is rotated away from the $xz$-plane, points have positive $y$- and $z$-coordinates that satisfy: $$(x, z\tan30^\circ, z) = \left(x, \frac{z}{\sqrt3}, z\right)$$

Combining the two conditions, points along the intersection ray of objects $A$ and $B$ have positive coordinates that satisfy:

$$\left(x, \frac{x}{\sqrt3}, x\right) = \left(\sqrt3 y, y, \sqrt3 y\right) = \left(z, \frac{z}{\sqrt3}, z\right)$$

Picking any point on this intersection ray, for example $\left(\sqrt3, 1, \sqrt3\right)$, to find the angle $\theta$ between this ray and the negative $x$-axis by dot product,

$$\begin{align*} \left(\sqrt3, 1,\sqrt3 \right)\cdot(-1,0,0) &= -\sqrt3\\ \left\|\left(\sqrt3, 1,\sqrt3 \right)\right\| \left\|(-1,0,0)\right\|\cos\theta &= -\sqrt3\\ \sqrt7\cdot1\cos\theta &= -\sqrt3\\ \cos\theta &= -\frac{\sqrt3}{\sqrt7}\\ \theta &= 130.9^\circ \end{align*}$$

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