SimpleQuaternions

The quaternions are an extension to the real (and complex) numbers. See this article.

This module provides the SimpleQuaternion type. To create the quaternion a + bi + cj + dk use SimpleQuaternion(a,b,c,d) or, alternatively a + b*im + c*jm + d*km.

Note that im is the usual Julia representation for i; this module adds jm and km. Thus, the expression 1+im yields a Complex value, but 1+jm yields a SimpleQuaternion.

Some examples:

julia> a = 3im - 4 + km
-4 + 3im + 0jm + 1km

julia> get_parts(a)
(-4, 3, 0, 1)

julia> real(a)   # Return the real part of a
-4

julia> isreal(a)
false

julia> a'        # return the conjugate of a
-4 - 3im + 0jm - 1km

julia> b = 1 - 4im + jm
1 - 4im + 1jm + 0km

julia> a+b
-3 - 1im + 1jm + 1km

julia> a-b
-5 + 7im - 1jm + 1km

julia> a*b
8 + 18im - 8jm + 4km

julia> inv(a)
-0.15384615384615385 - 0.11538461538461539im + 0.0jm - 0.038461538461538464km

julia> 1//a
-2//13 - 3//26im + 0//1jm - 1//26km

julia> a/b
-0.8888888888888888 - 0.6666666666666666im + 0.4444444444444444jm - 0.1111111111111111km

julia> a//b
-8//9 - 2//3im + 4//9jm - 1//9km

julia> im*jm == km
true

julia> jm*im == -km
true

julia> im*im == jm*jm == km*km == -1
true

Quaternions can be represented by 4-by-4 real matrices or by 2-by-2 complex matrices. The functions real_matrix and complex_matrix produce these.

julia> a = 3im-4 + km
-4 + 3im + 0jm + 1km

julia> isreal(a)
false

julia> a = 3im-4 + km^C

julia> a = 3im - 4 + km
-4 + 3im + 0jm + 1km

julia> get_parts(a)
(-4, 3, 0, 1)

julia> b = SimpleQuaternion(-8,0,2,6)^C

julia> b = 1 - 4im + jm
1 - 4im + 1jm + 0km

julia> a = 3im - 4 + km
-4 + 3im + 0jm + 1km

julia> b = 1 - 4im + jm
1 - 4im + 1jm + 0km

julia> A = real_matrix(a); B = real_matrix(b)
4×4 Array{Int64,2}:
  1   4  -1  0
 -4   1   0  1
  1   0   1  4
  0  -1  -4  1

julia> A*B == real_matrix(a*b)
true

julia> A = complex_matrix(a); B = complex_matrix(b)
2×2 Array{Complex{Int64},2}:
  1-4im  1+0im
 -1+0im  1+4im

julia> A*B == complex_matrix(a*b)
true

After either A = real_matrix(x) or A = complex_matrix(x) we can use SimpleQuaternion(A) to recover x. If A is not a valid matrix, an error is thrown.

Use rand(SimpleQuaternion) to yield a random quaternion each of whose four components is a uniform [0,1] random value.

Use randn(SimpleQuaternion) to yield a random quaternion each of whose four components is a standard normal random value.