Geometry – How Does the Angle Between Two Vectors Change During Rotation?

geometryrotationsvectors

Suppose a plane $P$ and a vector $\mathbf{v}$ is given that is not on $P$. Let the maximum angle that $\mathbf{v}$ makes with a vector on $P$ be $\theta_0$. Let $\mathbf{w}(0)$ be this second vector that makes an angle $\theta_0$ with $\mathbf{v}$. Now suppose we rotate $\mathbf{w}(0)$ on $P$ through an angle $\phi$ to obtain the vector $\mathbf{w}(\phi)$. What is the angle between $\mathbf{w}(\phi)$ and $\mathbf{v}$?

Obviously the angle between $\mathbf{w}(\pi)$ and $\mathbf{v}$ is $\pi-\theta_0$, but what is it for arbitrary $\phi$?

Best Answer

Without loss of generality let $P$ be the $xy$-plane and all vectors be of unit length. The angle between $\bf v$ and $P$ is $\pi-\theta_0$. Now fix $\mathbf v=(\cos\theta_0,0,\sin\theta_0)$ and $\mathbf w(0)=(1,0,0)$, so $\mathbf w(\phi)=(\cos\phi,\sin\phi,0)$.

The angle between $\bf v$ and $\mathbf w(\phi)$ is, by construction, the arccosine of their dot product: $$\cos A(\phi)=(\cos\theta_0,0,\sin\theta_0)\cdot(\cos\phi,\sin\phi,0)=\cos\theta_0\cos\phi$$ $$A(\phi)=\cos^{-1}(\cos\theta_0\cos\phi)$$

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