What does a Vector3 state?

Question

I'm really stucked. I couldn't understand what does Vector3 state.

When I look Unity Vector3 documentation it says

Representation of 3D vectors and points.

According to this sentence, a Vector3 can state a point or a vector in space.

But When I go into other documentation about Vector3 it really confused me.

For example When I look Vector3 Constructor documentation it says

Creates a new vector with given x, y, z components.

So that means Vector3 states a vector.

But When I look Debug.DrawLine(Vector3 startpoint, Vector3 endpoint) it says

startpoint and endpoint are points in world space.

So according to this, Vector3 is a point not a vector

I can increase the examples.

For example when I go into transform.position documentation it says,

The world space position of the Transform.

So it says Vector3 is a position(that means point. I think you can't state a position with Vector)

But when we try to change a position of gameobject with transform.position we again use Vector3 and that state a vector.Because you can't change position of a gameobject with point. You could use Vector

So, what does a Vector3 state ?

Answer 1

Answer by Bunny83 · Apr 30, 2021 at 02:21 AM

First of all a Vector3 is just a datastruct. It does not represent anything. It's just a group of 3 numbers, just a vector. A vector can represent whatever you want (as long as it can be represented with numbers).

Points or directions both can be represented with a vector. Note that a vector is a pure mathematical concept. What gives a vector its meaning is its usage, how you interpret its content.

If you struggle with the basics of linear algebra, you may want to watch the 3b1b series on the essence of linear algebra. Since you seem to have a very weird and biased view on what a vector is, I would really recommend you watch at least the first couple of episodes. At least to get a better understanding what a vector is.

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alpayoguz97 · Apr 30, 2021 at 02:30 PM 0

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Thanks a lot. I wıll watch it. You make me have a different point of wiev

What does a Vector3 state?

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