Quaternions and spatial rotation the rotation. As the rotation angles become larger, the slice moves in the negative "z" direction, and the circles become larger until the equator of the sphere is reached, which will correspond to a rotation angle of 180 degrees. Continuing southward, the radii of the circles now become smaller (corresponding to the absolute value of the angle of the rotation considered as a negative number). Finally, as the south pole is reached, the circles shrink once more to the identity rotation, which is also specified as the point at the south pole. Notice that a number of characteristics of such
Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) for 3 degrees of freedom. In addition, the molecule has two rotational degrees of motion and one vibrational mode. The rotations occur around the two axes perpendicular to the line between the two atoms. The rotation around the atom–atom bond is not a physical rotation. This yields, for a diatomic molecule, a decomposition of: For a general, non-linear molecule, all 3 rotational degrees of freedom are considered, resulting in the decomposition: which means that an -atom molecule has vibrational degrees of freedom for . In special cases, such as adsorbed large molecules, the rotational degrees of freedom can be limited