What is the difference between normal and perpendicular, orthogonal and tangent to the surface?
Does a normal means a unit vector to the surface? is there any difference when we use the words normal and perpendicular when talking about the surface?
What is the difference between normal and perpendicular, orthogonal and tangent to the surface?
Does a normal means a unit vector to the surface? is there any difference when we use the words normal and perpendicular when talking about the surface?
Copyright © 2021 JogjaFile Inc.
As we have a tangent for a curve in $\mathbb{R}^2$ i.e., a line which touches the curve at that point (and tells direction of the curve at that point), similarly for a surface we have the tangent plane which just touches the surface at the point and is parallel to the surface at that point. Now we can talk about the perpendicular to this tangent at that point on the surface. Normal vector, orthogonal vector are just different names for perpendicular in this context.