The Quaternions
Rich Schwartz September 17, 2007
The purpose of this handout is to introduce the quaternions and discuss some of their basic properties.
Basic Denitions
To dene the quaternions, we rst introduce the symbols i, j, k . These symbols satisfy the following properties: i2 = j 2 = k 2 = 1; ix = xi; ij = k ; jk = i; ki = j. (1)
Also, for any real number x, we have jx = xj ; kx = xk. (2)
You can work out other rules from these properties. For example, suppose you want to compute the mystery symbol T = ji. Note that T i = jii = j (1) = (1)j = j = ki. Cancelling the i gives T = k . In short, ji = k . The other rules are ji = k ; kj = i; ik = j. (3) A quaternion is an object of the form a + bi + cj + dk , where a, b, c, d are real numbers. Quaternions are added componentwise and multiplied using the foil method. For addition (a1 + b1 i + c1 j + d1 k ) + (a2 + b2 i + c2 j + d2 k ) = 1
(a1 + a2 ) + (b1 + b2 )i + (c1 + c2 )j + (d1 + d2 )k. To do the multiplication, you expand out the product (a1 + b1 i + c1 j + d1 k ) (a2 + b2 i + c2 j + d2 k )
(4)
as you would for a polynomial and then simplify all the terms involving ij , ik , etc., using the rules above. For instance (3i + j ) (7j + 2k ) = 21ij + 6ik + 7jj + 2jk = 21k 6j 7 + 2i = 7 + 2i 6j + 21k. Problem 1: Show that (q1 q2 )q3 = q1 (q2 q3 ) for any three quaternions q1 , q2 , q3 . That is, the multiplication is associative.
Conjugates and Norms
q = a bi cj dk. (5)
Given a quaternion q = a + bi + cj + dk , we have the conjugate
Problem 2: Show that qq = qq = a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 . (6)
The norm of q is dened to be |q | = qq. (7)
q is called a unit quaternion if |q | = 1. In case q is a unit quaternion, note that q has the property that qq = qq = 1. In other words, q = 1/q . In general, we have the division formula q1 q1 q 2 = . q2 |q2 |2 2 (8)
This works as long as |q2 | = 0. problem 3: Show that pq = q p, for any two quaternions p and q . Given the calculation from problem 3, we have |pq |2 = pq pq = p q q p = p |q |2 p = pp |q |2 = |p|2 |q |2. Taking square roots of both sides, we get |pq | = |p||q |. This holds for any two quaternions. (10) (9)
The Three Dimensional Sphere
Let S 3 denote the set of all unit quaternions. The equation for S 3 is given by a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 = |q |2 = 1. (11) This is the equation for the unit sphere in four dimensional space. Now lets verify that S 3 is a group, with the multiplication law. We need to check the 4 basic axioms. 1. If p, q S 3 , then so is pq . This is a special case of Equation 10. 2. (pq )r = (p(qr ). This is Problem 1 above. 3. 1 is a unit quaternion and satises 1q = q 1 for all q S 3 . 4. Let q 1 = q . Then qq 1 = qq = |q |2 = 1. Likewise q 1 q = 1. This veries all the group laws.
Representing Rotations by Quaternions
This section is somewhat more advanced than previous sections. A quaternion of the form 0 + bi + cj + dk is called pure . Let V denote the set of pure quaternions. If you know about linear algebra, you will recognize that V is a 3 dimensional real vector space, that we are identifying with R3 . If you dont know what this means, you can just think informally that V is a copy of R3 . Exercise 4: Suppose that q is a unit quaternion and p is a pure quaternion. Prove that qpq 1 is another pure quaternion. Given a unit quaternion q , dene Tq (p) = qpq 1 . Exercise 4 shows that Tq is a map from V to V . Note that |Tq (p)| = |q | |p| |q 1 | = 1 |p| 1 = |p|. This comes from Equation 10. Exercise 5: Let r R and let p1 , p2 be real quaternions. Prove that Tq (rp1 + p2 ) = rTq (p1 ) + Tq (p2 ). (14) Exercise 5 shows that Tq is a linear map. Equation 13 shows that Tq is an isometry. This means that det(Tq ) = 1. When q = 1, the map Tq is the identity map, and has determinant 1. Also, the determinant is a continuous function of q . Hence det(Tq ) = 1 (15) for all unit quaternions q . All this information together shows that Tq acts as a rotation of 3-dimensional space. Exercise 6: Show that every rotation of R3 (which xes (0, 0, 0)) has the form Tq for some unit quaternion q . Also, show that Tq = Tr if and only if q = r . The group of all rotations of R3 is denoted by SO (3). We have just exhibited a map S 3 SO (3). This map is (by Exercise 6) 2 1 and onto. It is known as the spin cover . 4 (13) (12)
