From ksteinfeWiki

Contents 1 Overview 2 What's a Vector? 3 Example: Vectors as Tangents 4 Magnitude

Overview

What's a Vector?

Recall from our discussion of points that a the data structure of a point is the familiar 1d array, consisting of three double numbers, and corresponding to the x-coordinate, the y-coordinate, and the z-coordinate of a position in space. Also recall that a the data structure of a point in monkeybrainland doesn't necessarily correspond to a point object in Rhino.

The data structure of a vector is exactly the same - three double numbers which denote a position in space, as we see below.

Because points and vectors share exactly the same data structures, they can be treated as essentially the same thing, at least from the point of view of the computer.

To us, however, they're very different. Where points are absolute, denoting an absolute position in space, vectors are relative: they denote a direction relative to an implied origin.

Example: Vectors as Tangents

TODO:

Magnitude

TODO: Vectors can also describe magnitude.