
2
The Mathematics
of Particles
efore we look at simulating the physics of particles, this chapter reviews 3D
Bmathematics. In particular, it looks at vector mathematics and vector c alculus,
the fundamental building blocks on which all our physics code will be built. I’ll avoid
some of the harder topics that we’ll only need later. Matrices and quaternions, for
example, will not be needed until Chapter 9, so I’ll postpone reviewing them until
that point.
2.1 Vectors
Most of the mathematics we are taught at school deals with single numbers, such as
a number to represent how many apples we have, or the time it take s for a train to
mak e a journey, or the ...