The expression "to unitize a vector" is often use in computational geometry. What does it mean?
What is the meaning of "unitize a vector"?
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$\begingroup$
vector-spaces
computational-geometry
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0I would guess normalize. But I won't pretend I do any computational geometry whatsoever. – 2012-07-01
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0It is lamentable that different areas of mathematics develop different terms for the same stuff. This just contributes to siloization, which has not been good for the field. – 2012-07-01
1 Answers
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Yeah, it's a perversion of normalize. If $v\not = 0$, we normalize v as follows $$w = {v\over \|v\|}.$$ Why this ugly neologism is needed is beyond me.
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1To me, "unitize" seems like a better term -- you are modifying the vector to make its length unity. The term "normalize" isn't very descriptive. If a vector has unit length, in what sense is it "normal" ?? If vector's length is different from 1, is it then "abnormal" ?? – 2012-08-18
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0Normalize is used in the sense of "standardize", as you might do with a normally distributed random variable to give it zero mean and unit variance. – 2012-08-23
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0I'm guessing they want to distinguish it from "norm", which could have different definitions, but now they have a name conflict with the unit type, which is sort of worse than conflicting with true and false. – 2016-03-01