Tensor Equation of a Plane
Tensor Equation of a Plane
The general equation of a plane can be written as , where coefficients , , , and are determined using a set of matrices.
A+B+C+D=0
q
1
q
2
q
3
A
B
C
D
The simplification of the plane equations to one tensor equation proceeds from the similarity of the three-vector equations for , , , and . These equations can be rewritten together using the antisymmetric permutation tensor ; however, the three-vectors , , for points in and the origin need to be rewritten as four-vectors so that they have a compatible dimension. The first three components of the vectors , , , and are equal to the coordinates of a point in and the fourth component of these vectors is . Similarly, the first three components of the vector are equal to the free variables , , and , while the fourth component of this vector is . The matrix allows the first, second, and third components of a four-vector to be selected for summation.
A
B
C
D
ijkl
ϵ
q
1
q
2
q
3
3
O
q'
i
q''
j
q'''
k
O
l
3
1
e
q
1
q
2
q
3
1
η
lq
Choosing three distinguishable points, the equation for a plane can be written in tensor notation as =0.
ijkl
ϵ
q'
i
q''
j
q'''
k
e
l
A point-to-plane distance function can also be written in tensor notation. The distance between an origin and a plane can be written as:
λ
O
P
λ(O,P)=
ijkl
ϵ
q'
i
q''
j
q'''
k
O
l
-1
ijkl
ϵ
q'
i
q''
j
q'''
k
η
lq
mnpq
ϵ
q'
m
q''
n
q'''
p
Tensor notation for planes and distances could be very useful to material scientists who would like to define coordinate systems and compute distance functions without using Miller indices.