this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
711 points (98.6% liked)
Programmer Humor
32061 readers
1519 users here now
Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
Rules:
- Posts must be relevant to programming, programmers, or computer science.
- No NSFW content.
- Jokes must be in good taste. No hate speech, bigotry, etc.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Because math works with Y up. Physics steal from math, engeneering steals from physics, so, here you are.
What I can't get is imperial measurement system. Apparently, nobody but americans can. And that stuff is far worse than Y and Z switching places.
as a minecraft player learning how to use autocad, i thought y up was alot more ubiquitous then it apparently is
That's what I don't get. Why would they make Z up when in algebra, Y is up. It's all based on math, shouldn't we keep consistent on that?
Because the z axis is represented as an extension of the xy-plane, coming out of the paper essentially, so we represent it as up
That's not true though. While there isn't a standard, convention is to have z up in mathematics, as z is extending the xy plane we normally work with into a third space.
Might depend on where you were learning.
On paper, when I was learning Descartes' coordibate system, we used Y as up and X as left-right. And when it was time to plot in 3D, we used Z to "extend" the plane into yourself and away from yourself.
You just hold your sheet of paper perpendicular to the ground (or just use a whiteboard) and it all makes sense.
I'm not American but I've been living in the USA for ten years and I still have trouble with imperial measurements. It's painful dealing with fractions of an inch instead of millimeters.