Talk:Versor (physics)

Discard

1. An editor at Imperial College nominated the article for deletion
2. The article is unreferenced
3. The topic is Right versor which is $\exp(\theta r)=\cos \theta +r\sin \theta$ for θ = π/2.
4. See versor for the well-referenced article that includes this topic.

Comments posted here to support AfD nomination soon. — Rgdboer (talk) 23:35, 4 August 2016 (UTC)

My vote is against deletion. Unfortunately, the term versor is not only used in the context of quaternions, where it was first introduced... As explained in Versor (disambiguation), the term is used in three different contexts:

• Versor, a quaternion of norm 1
• Versor (physics), a vector of norm 1 (unit vector) codirectional with an axis or with another vector
• A Rotor (mathematics) or an improper rotation, a type of multivector in geometric algebra

The second context (generic linear vector spaces, physics) is described in this article. See also, for instance, this source. I agree that this is not widely used terminology, but it is sometimes used, as far as I know, in the context of physics...

Regards, Paolo.dL (talk) 14:52, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

"Not widely used." Certainly not, even your source has exactly one use when "versor" is searched on Google Books. This project ought not perpetuate improper language, as when "right" is dropped from "right versor" to denote a unit vector in 3-space. — Rgdboer (talk) 02:21, 20 April 2019 (UTC)

I am against any kind of improper language, including improperly dropping "right" form "right versor", when you refer to a particular kind of unit quaternion.... However, this article is not about unit quaternions. It is about unit vectors. We are in a different context. I believe this is made clear enough at the very beginning of the article with this sentence:

This redirect is about a unit vector codirectional with an axis or with another vector. For other uses of the term versor, see Versor (disambiguation).

In other wards, this is not improper terminology as far as you know that the term has different meanings in different contexts... and this is not an uncommon circumstance... Even the word "vector" has different meanings in different contexts...

Paolo.dL (talk) 11:16, 20 April 2019 (UTC)