Rigid body possible to reconstruct the position of all the other particles, provided that their time-invariant position relative to the three selected particles is known. However, typically a different, mathematically more convenient, but equivalent approach is used. The position of the whole body is represented by: Thus, the position of a rigid body has two components: linear and angular, respectively. The same is true for other kinematic and kinetic quantities describing the motion of a rigid body, such as linear and angular velocity, acceleration, momentum, impulse, and kinetic energy. The linear position can be represented by a vector with its tail at
Cross product formula_123 is its velocity and formula_124 is the body's angular velocity. Since position formula_110 and velocity formula_123 are "true" vectors, the angular velocity formula_124 is a "pseudovector" or "axial vector". The cross product is used to describe the Lorentz force experienced by a moving electric charge formula_128: Since velocity formula_123, force formula_118 and electric field formula_132 are all "true" vectors, the magnetic field formula_133 is a "pseudovector". In vector calculus, the cross product is used to define the formula for the vector operator curl. The trick of rewriting a cross product in terms of a matrix multiplication appears frequently in