Past exam of the options II course of the University of Oxford / 2012 / H / H2 / a

Let $E(t)$ be the matrix whose columns are the moving orthonormal basis vectors. Then $E{E}^T=I$. Differentiating givesso $W=\dot{E}{E}^T$ is skew-symmetric. Every real skew-symmetric $3\times 3$ matrix has the unique formwhich acts on a vector as $Wv=\mathbf{\omega }\times v$. Since $\dot{E}=WE$, each column satisfiesThe vector $\mathbf{\omega }$ is the instantaneous angular velocity. It may also be written $\mathbf{\omega }=\frac{1}{2}{\sum }_i{\mathbf{e}}_i\times {\dot{\mathbf{e}}}_i$.