Ray Tracing

Hello Everyone. My first post on these forums, so here goes. I have a decent opengl programming background, i took one class here at IU and we covered the basics. Since this class, I have done a few projects (Steroe CAVE games, a basic game engine, etc…) but I have missed some important concepts along the way. I am trying to find an efficeint way to perform collision detection for moving (linear) objects, say missiles for example. I know that ray tracing is the way to go, however, I cannot seem to figure out how this technology really works. (I have google’d it to no end by now). Could someone please explain the general idea of how a ray is defined, and also, how they can be used to detect collisions? I have a decent linear algebra background so please feel free to use whatever mathematical terminology u like. Anyhoo thanks in advance.

You could search this forum, or check the tutorials at http://nehe.gamedev.net

Basic 3D math, do a google search on 3D math and vectors.