Orthogonal
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Orthogonal
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Originally, at right angles; later generalized to mean the vanishing of a
sum (or integral) of products.
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The cosine of the angle between two vectors V1 and V2 with the
respective components x1, y1, z1, and x2, y2, z2 is proportional to the sum of
products x1x2 + y1y1 + z1z2. Hence, if the vectors are perpendicular, the
latter sum equals zero. For this reason any two series of numbers (x1, x2, ...
xn) and (y1, y2, ...yn) is said to be orthogonal if
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References
This article is based on NASA's Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use
