LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Quaternion: Quaternions
built 264 days ago
Quaternion defines a single example of a more general class of hypercomplex numbers. Quaternions extends a rotation in three dimensions to a rotation in four dimensions. This avoids "gimbal lock" and allows for smooth continuous rotation. Quaternion is defined by four floating point numbers: {x y z w}.
Source:
Quaternion equations have been used to do physics, ranging from classical physics, to the Maxwell equations, and into Quantum Mechanics. It should be possible to use the equations for a hydrogen atom to generate a technically accurate picture of the atom in various states. Someday it may be possible to generate an animation of two hydrogen atoms fusing to form a helium atom.
Source:
Quaternion (Quaternion) — The Quaternion representation for 3D orientations. e0 is the cosine of the half-angle of the rotation, and e1 through e3 are the x, y, and z components of the rotation axis times the sine of the half-angle. The rotation brings the crystal axes into coincidence with the lab axes.
Source:
That is, if you have an initial Quaternion representing the original orientation of an object, and you have a final Quaternion representing the orientation you want the object to face, you can do this very smoothly with slerp. Simply supply the time, where time is [0, 1] and 0 is the initial rotation and 1 is the final rotation.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Quaternions