Velvet Star Monitor

Standout celebrity highlights with iconic style.

general

How can I represent an N dimensional line?

Writer Matthew Martinez
$\begingroup$

How can I represent a straight line (between two points) in a N-dimensional space?

$\endgroup$ 1

3 Answers

$\begingroup$

If $x,y$ are in $n$-dimensional space the line between them can be represented by $t(x-y)+y$ where $t$ runs over the real numbers. For a sanity check, observe that we get $y$ when $t=0$ and $x$ when $t=1$. You can't write a line as the solutions to a single equation in $n$ dimensions, unfortunately-you need $n-1$ equations, which is why you do get $y=mx+b$ etc in $2$ dimensions.

$\endgroup$ 5 $\begingroup$

You can take n-1 linearly independent hyperplanes which go through these two points and solve the system formed by those equations. The result will be the equation of the line.

I suppose that the form of the equation of the line could be: $$\frac{x_1-x^0_1}{a_1}=\frac{x_2-x^0_2}{a_2}=...\frac{x_n-x^0_1}{a_n}$$ where $(x^0_1,x^0_2,...x^0_n)$ is a given point of the line and $(a_1,a_2,...,a_n)$ a vector colinear to the line.

$\endgroup$ $\begingroup$

Similar to the first answer, we can represent a line in n-dimensions using vectors. An expression such as tv+u where v and u are n-dimensional vectors and t is a scalar. The vector v essential gives the inclination of the plane within n-space, and the vector u selects one out of an infinite number of planes that have the same inclination.

$\endgroup$

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Sign up using Google Sign up using Facebook Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy