Possible error in Marion and Thornton's Classical Dynamics?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on a potential error in the rotation matrix presented in Marion and Thornton's Classical Dynamics. The user notes a discrepancy between the book's rotation matrix for clockwise rotation and their own derivation, which suggests counter-clockwise rotation. The clarification emphasizes that the rotation matrix should express new coordinates in terms of the old ones, with the columns representing the transformed unit vectors. This distinction resolves the confusion regarding the direction of rotation. Understanding the correct application of rotation matrices is crucial in classical mechanics.
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so I was going over my notes on classical mechanics and just started to review rotation matrices which is the first topic the book starts with. On page 3, I've uploaded the page here

The rotation matrix associated with 1.2a and 1.2b is

\begin{pmatrix}
\cos\theta & \sin\theta \\
-\sin\theta & \cos\theta \\
\end{pmatrix}but when I try to derive the matrix by following the unit vectors ##\hat i## and ##\hat j##

I get

\begin{pmatrix}
\cos\theta & -\sin\theta \\
\sin\theta & \cos\theta \\
\end{pmatrix}

The one that the book derives would be clockwise rotation, and the one I got would be for counter-clockwise rotation correct?
 

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No. You want to express the new coordinates in terms of the old with the rotation matrix. The columns are the images of the new unit vectors, expressed in the old coordinate system: $$\hat i' = \cos\theta\; \hat i + \sin\theta\;\hat j \\\hat j' = -\sin\theta\; \hat i + \cos\theta\;\hat j $$
 
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