In class, we’ve studied the rotation as the transformation that keeps the inner product

T
~v ~v invariant. In other words, rotations leave the length invariant, since
v1
 
 v2 
~v T ~v = (v1 , v2 , · · · , vd )  2 2
 ...  = (v1 ) +(v2 ) +(vd )
 2
(1)
vd
where d is the dimension of the vector. Suppose we have a linear transformation

~v 0 = M~v . (2)
Then, for M to be a rotation, it must satisfy
~v 0T ~v 0 = ~v T M T M~v = ~v T ~v (3)

This implies that

MT M = I (4)
where I is the identity.1 If we were in two dimensions, we saw in class that M takes the
form  
cos θ − sin θ
M= . (6)
sin θ cos θ
For example for any point on a circle, which are points that have equal length to the
origin, M will transform it to another point on the circle. Indeedif we
 consider in two
1
dimensions (v1 )2 +(v2 )2 = 1, then M will transform the point ~v = to
0
    
0 cos θ − sin θ 1 cos θ
~v = = (7)
sin θ cos θ 0 sin θ
1 For example  
  1 0 0
1 0
two dimensions I= , three dimensions I= 0 1 0 . (5)
0 1
0 0 1

1
which is another point on the circle
(1,0)
1.0

(cosθ, sinθ)
0.5

-1.0 -0.5 0.5 1.0

-0.5

-1.0

Now ~v T ~v can be understood as an inner product defined with respect to the identity I
  
T 1 0 v1
~v I~v = (v1 , v2 ) = (v1 )2 +(v2 )2 (8)
0 1 v2
 
1 0
Instead of the identity, lets consider defining out inner product through . That
0 −1
is the we define the length as
  
1 0 v1
(v1 , v2 ) = (v1 )2 −(v2 )2 (9)
0 1 v2

Points that lie on such fixed length is a parabola that you learned in high (middle) school.

2
Indeed if we draw (v1 )2 −(v2 )2 = 1, the curve will look like:
4

1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5

-2

-4

Now given a point on such a parabola, we like to know what is the transformation M
that maps it to another point on the parabola? Or said in another way, what is the linear
transformation M    0 
v1 v1
M = (10)
v2 v20
such that (v1 )2 −(v2 )2 = (v10 )2 −(v20 )2 ?
Let’s solve this in two steps.

• Let’s say M = eG , what is the form of G ?

• After you find G, plug it into M = eG , and solve for M .