Take ordinary basal slip in magnesium, . In three-index hexagonal notation, denotes a vector proportional to , not a cubic Cartesian with equal axis lengths. The basal slip direction closest to the tensile axis is along ; its four-index representative is .
For ,
Thus the algebraic answer is
An external crystallographic reference gives and , hence and . This is a conditional external-data estimate, not a fabricated value attributed to the supplied Data Book.[ref]
The tensile axis rotates towards the selected basal slip direction during ideal single slip. As the axis approaches the basal plane, the resolved basal shear eventually becomes small; other modes, hardening and instability can interrupt the single-slip description. The boxed expression also permits direct substitution of any lattice ratio used in the examination Data Book; the numerical estimate above is explicitly tied to the cited crystallographic data. Taking a angle solely from the indices would incorrectly use a cubic metric.