Show that rotation preserves norms for three-dimensional vectors

2k Views Asked by At

From S.L Linear Algebra:

Let $F$ be a rotation through an angle . Show that for any vector $X$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$, we have $||X||=||F(X)||$ (i.e. $F$ preserves norms), where $(a, b)=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$.


What I tried:

I believe the solution could be found by using a matrix definition of transformation (due to rotation being linear transformation), but I wasn't able to reach the end:

We know that rotation $F(X)=AX$ where $A$ is a standard basis matrix $(a_{ij})$ for column space of $F$.

I believe that dimensions of $A$ should be $3x3$, considering the fact that $A$ is a rotation matrix which is basically an orthogonal matrix with positive determinant (but is $A$ really a rotation matrix?). Considering this, symbolically $AX$ could be represented as:

$$\begin{pmatrix} a_{11} & a_{12} & a_{13 }\\ a_{21} & a_{22} & a_{23} \\ a_{31} & a_{32} & a_{33} \end{pmatrix} \begin{pmatrix} x_1\\ x_2 \\ x_3 \\ \end{pmatrix}$$

Hence:

$$||F(X)||=||AX||=\begin{pmatrix} ||a_{11}x_1|| + ||a_{12}x_2|| + ||a_{13}x_3|| \\ ||a_{21}x_1||+||a_{22}x_2|| + ||a_{23}x_3|| \\ ||a_{31}x_1|| + ||a_{32}x_2|| + ||a_{33}x_3|| \\ \end{pmatrix}$$

Therefore, if $A$ is matrix of ones, then $||AX||=||X||$. If steps that I took before were completely valid, how can I show that $A$ is a matrix of ones?

If not, what is $A$ exactly? I know that there is a $2x2$ rotation matrix that contains trigonometric functions as columns (before rotation it obviously contains standard basis), but I couldn't find anything similar for $3x3$ matrix.

Thank you!

1

There are 1 best solutions below

2
On BEST ANSWER

If $A$ is a rotation matrix it is orthogonal and $\|A\| = 1$. To keep it consistent with the Euclidean vector norm, I am assuming $\|A\| = \rho(A^T A)$. It is easy to show that $\|A X\| \leq \|A\| \|X\| = \|X\|$, so the proof is complete if we show that $\|AX\| \ge \|X\|$. This last part is easily obtained knowing that $A^{-1} = A^T$.