# How to find angle after two rotations

by 1MileCrash
Tags: angle, rotations
 P: 1,227 I have coordinate system A with bases a, b, c. Say I rotate the whole system 30 degrees, so that the angle between a and a' is 30 degrees. Then I make another rotation so that this plane of rotation is perpendicular to that of the old one. What is the angle between a and a' now? I am trying to find the angles to use in a tensor transformation law, but I am having problems understanding what the angles will be between the old and new axes when a transformation isn't just a single rotation in one plane of the system. Tia
 Math Emeritus Sci Advisor Thanks PF Gold P: 38,881 You can write any rotation as a matrix multiplication. Then two rotations is given by the product of the two matrices. For example, if you wrote 30 degrees around the z- axis, the rotation is given by $$\begin{bmatrix} cos(30) & -sin(30) & 0 \\ sin(30) & cos(30) & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1\end{bmatrix}= \begin{bmatrix}\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} & -\frac{1}{2} & 0\\ \frac{1}{2} & \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}& 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1\end{bmatrix}$$ A rotation around the y-axis, through 30 degrees is given by $$\begin{bmatrix} cos(30) & 0 &-sin(30)\\ 0 & 1 & 0 \\ sin(30) & 0 & cos(30) \end{bmatrix}= \begin{bmatrix}\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} & 0 & -\frac{1}{2} \\ 0 & 1 & 0 \\ \frac{1}{2} & 0 & \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}\end{bmatrix}$$ The two rotations together would be given by the product of the two matrices.
 Sci Advisor HW Helper Thanks P: 26,167 Hi Tia! Alternatively, use quaternions, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatern...atial_rotation

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