What branch of mathematics solves the problem of calculating position and distance in a space?

Question

I'm a software engineer with very little real world math experience.

I'm studying computer vision and interested in learning how to calculate the exact distance and position of an object A from an object B within a 3D space.

Can someone please tell me what branch of mathematics I need to learn to solve the above problem? From schooling days - Linear Algebra and Trigonometry come to mind, is this right?

Other applied mathematics keywords : telemetry (if you use captors), geodesy, positioning... — Jean Marie, Apr 03 '20 at 14:03

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 03 '20 at 14:02

1

Yes, it is Linear Algebra, which consists of topics about linear transformation (rotation, scaling, etc.) and vector operations. For example, OpenGL uses matrices to do rotation, scaling, and even translation. For example, if we were to calculate distance between two points in an n-dimensional space (pedantically, two vectors $u,v\in\mathbb{R}^n$), we will use the following notation:

$$ \|u-v\|=\sqrt{\sum_{k=1}^n(u_k-v_k)^2} $$

I believe Linear Algebra is the branch of mathematics talking about.

answered Apr 03 '20 at 14:02

TravorLZH

6,718

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I don't agree : "Geometry" is the main keyword. Linear algebra is a subdomain. – Jean Marie Apr 03 '20 at 14:05
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@JeanMarie Well, software engineers code Linear Algebra into computers so that the computers can do geometry – TravorLZH Apr 03 '20 at 16:33
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You are right, seen on the engineering point of view. – Jean Marie Apr 03 '20 at 16:42

What branch of mathematics solves the problem of calculating position and distance in a space?

1 Answers1