RE: Linear gradients, Transforms and angles...

Brad Kemper:
>That may be ingrained into your understanding of rotation,
>but I do not think it is a common way to think of angles as
>specifiers of linear direction. If someone asks me to draw
>a 45 degree angle, I draw a line pointing to the right and
>another line, connected to the first on the left, pointing
>up and to the right. If superimposed on a square it would
>go from lower left to upper right corners. When I draw that
>angle, it never enters my mind which direction the positive
>y-axis points, and I have no expectation that it matters.
>I really don't think I am unusual in thinking this way,
>except perhaps amongst a this crowd.

+1.  You're not unusual here, Brad.

It's likely we saw examples in textbooks as children as well, that have stuck for a while.

It's quite natural to have an example in a textbook of a human standing on the Earth looking to the right(1), facing up at the stars or the sun(2)(3), and then showing an angle relative to the horizon.

(1) English is ES so it's perhaps subconsciously natural for figures to face to the right to match the character progression.
(2) It's unusual to think of ourselves as pointing up rather than down, gravity, etc.
(3) Sun/stars are upward; opposite of (2).

-Brian

Received on Wednesday, 22 September 2010 17:44:26 UTC