Calculator Tab Discrepancies

Flair
1

I ran into a few issues with the Calculator tab compared to the documentation.

It appears some of the Operators listed in 3.6.2 in the online documentation [3.6 Function Evalutation](file:///usr/local/flair/manual/html/input/function.html#functions) are not available in the Flair Calculator as illustrated by my attempt to use them here

Calc Window
Calc Window1015×868 61.8 KB

Additionally, the available functions in Vector list and Card list in the Flair Calculator tab also do not match what is listed in the online documention

Calc Window with Card
Calc Window with Card1018×900 83.9 KB

Card Reference
Card Reference1196×312 43.8 KB

Between the two, it can be confusing what is valid and what is outdated.

2

Hi @Dirk.A.Bartkoski
the orthogonal, direction, perp are not functions but methods of the vector object you can access them as

{0, -0.14, 2.0521}.orthogonal()

we should update the manual

3

I see. That makes sense.

If I may ask a followup question.

How are orthogonal() and perp() defined?

I know the documentation says:
“orthogonal() = return a vector orthogonal to current”
“perp() = return perpendicular component of vector”

It is a bit unclear to me how “orthogonal” is defined for a single vector in three dimensions.

5

Indeed the documentation is not clear
orthogonal returns a new vector such as the dot product of the two is zero
A.dot(A.orthogonal()) = 0
in pseudo language it will be

if abs(x) < abs(y):
        if abs(x) < abs(z):
                return Vector(0, z, -y)
        else:
                return Vector(y, -x, 0)
elif abs(y) < abs(z):
        return Vector(-z, 0, x)
else:   
        return Vector(y, -x, 0)

perp() gives the transverse component of a vector, or the radius in a cylindrical system as

return sqrt(x^2 + y^2)
6

Thanks for the explanation.