Quaternion type

Quaternion type is a draft programming task. It is not yet considered ready to be promoted as a complete task, for reasons that should be found in its talk page.

Quaternions are an extension of the idea of complex numbers

A complex number has a real and complex part written sometimes as a + bi, where a and b stand for real numbers and i stands for the square root of minus 1. An example of a complex number might be -3 + 2i, where the real part, a is -3.0 and the complex part, b is +2.0.

A quaternion has one real part and three imaginary parts, i, j, and k. A quaternion might be written as a + bi + cj +dk. In this numbering system, ii = jj = kk = ijk = -1. The order of multiplication is important, as, in general, for two quaternions q1 and q2; q1q2 != q2q1. An example of a quaternion might be 1 +2i +3j +4k

There is a list form of notation where just the numbers are shown and the imaginary multipliers i,j, and k are assumed by position. So the example above would be written as (1, 2, 3, 4)

Task Description
Given the three quaternions and their components:

   q  = (1, 2, 3, 4) = (a,  b,  c,  d )
   q1 = (2, 3, 4, 5) = (a1, b1, c1, d1)
   q2 = (3, 4, 5, 6) = (a2, b2, c2, d2)

And a wholly real number r = 7.

Your task is to create functions or classes to perform simple maths with quaternions including computing:

1. The norm of a quaternion:
   $={\sqrt {a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}+d^{2}}}$
2. The negative of a quaternion:
   =(-a, -b, -c, -d)
3. The conjugate of a quaternion:
   =( a, -b, -c, -d)
4. Addition of a real number r and a quaternion q:
   r + q = q + r = (a+r, b, c, d)
5. Addition of two quaternions:
   q1 + q2 = (a1+a2, b1+b2, c1+c2, d1+d2)
6. Multiplication of a real number and a quaternion:
   qr = rq = (ar, br, cr, dr)
7. Multiplication of two quaternions q1 and q2 is given by:
   ( a1a2 − b1b2 − c1c2 − d1d2,
a1b2 + b1a2 + c1d2 − d1c2,
a1c2 − b1d2 + c1a2 + d1b2,
a1d2 + b1c2 − c1b2 + d1a2 )
8. Show that, for the two quaternions q1 and q2:
   q1q2 != q2q1

If your language has built-in support for quaternions then use it.

python

This example extends Pythons namedtuples to add extra functionality. <lang python>from collections import namedtuple import math

class Q(namedtuple('Quaternion', 'real, i, j, k')):

   'Quaternion type: Q(real=0.0, i=0.0, j=0.0, k=0.0)' 

   __slots__ = () 

   def __new__(_cls, real=0.0, i=0.0, j=0.0, k=0.0):
       'Defaults all parts of quaternion to zero'
       return super().__new__(_cls, float(real), float(i), float(j), float(k))

   def conjugate(self):
       return Q(self.real, -self.i, -self.j, -self.k)

   def _norm2(self):
       return sum( x*x for x in self)

   def norm(self):
       return math.sqrt(self._norm2())

   def reciprocal(self):
       n2 = self._norm2()
       return Q(*(x / n2 for x in self.conjugate())) 

   def __str__(self):
       'Shorter form of Quaternion as string'
       return 'Q(%g, %g, %g, %g)' % self

   def __neg__(self):
       return Q(-self.real, -self.i, -self.j, -self.k)

   def __add__(self, other):
       if type(other) == Q:
           return Q( *(s+o for s,o in zip(self, other)) )
       try:
           f = float(other)
       except:
           return NotImplemented
       return Q(self.real + f, self.i, self.j, self.k)

   def __radd__(self, other):
       return Q.__add__(self, other)

   def __mul__(self, other):
       if type(other) == Q:
           a1,b1,c1,d1 = self
           a2,b2,c2,d2 = other
           return Q(
                a1*a2 - b1*b2 - c1*c2 - d1*d2,
                a1*b2 + b1*a2 + c1*d2 - d1*c2,
                a1*c2 - b1*d2 + c1*a2 + d1*b2,
                a1*d2 + b1*c2 - c1*b2 + d1*a2 )
       try:
           f = float(other)
       except:
           return NotImplemented
       return Q(self.real * f, self.i * f, self.j * f, self.k * f)

   def __rmul__(self, other):
       return Q.__mul__(self, other)

Quaternion = Q

q = Q(1, 2, 3, 4) q1 = Q(2, 3, 4, 5) q2 = Q(3, 4, 5, 6) r = 7</lang>

Continued shell session Run the above with the -i flag to python on the command line, or run with idle then continue in the shell as follows: <lang python>>>> q Quaternion(real=1.0, i=2.0, j=3.0, k=4.0) >>> q1 Quaternion(real=2.0, i=3.0, j=4.0, k=5.0) >>> q2 Quaternion(real=3.0, i=4.0, j=5.0, k=6.0) >>> r 7 >>> q.norm() 5.477225575051661 >>> q1.norm() 7.3484692283495345 >>> q2.norm() 9.273618495495704 >>> -q Quaternion(real=-1.0, i=-2.0, j=-3.0, k=-4.0) >>> q.conjugate() Quaternion(real=1.0, i=-2.0, j=-3.0, k=-4.0) >>> r + q Quaternion(real=8.0, i=2.0, j=3.0, k=4.0) >>> q + r Quaternion(real=8.0, i=2.0, j=3.0, k=4.0) >>> q1 + q2 Quaternion(real=5.0, i=7.0, j=9.0, k=11.0) >>> q2 + q1 Quaternion(real=5.0, i=7.0, j=9.0, k=11.0) >>> q * r Quaternion(real=7.0, i=14.0, j=21.0, k=28.0) >>> r * q Quaternion(real=7.0, i=14.0, j=21.0, k=28.0) >>> q1 * q2 Quaternion(real=-56.0, i=16.0, j=24.0, k=26.0) >>> q2 * q1 Quaternion(real=-56.0, i=18.0, j=20.0, k=28.0) >>> assert q1 * q2 != q2 * q1 >>> >>> i, j, k = Q(0,1,0,0), Q(0,0,1,0), Q(0,0,0,1) >>> i*i Quaternion(real=-1.0, i=0.0, j=0.0, k=0.0) >>> j*j Quaternion(real=-1.0, i=0.0, j=0.0, k=0.0) >>> k*k Quaternion(real=-1.0, i=0.0, j=0.0, k=0.0) >>> i*j*k Quaternion(real=-1.0, i=0.0, j=0.0, k=0.0) >>> </lang>