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Homework Problems

- This document contains notes on parametric and implicit equations for planes and lines in 3D space, as well as formulas for calculating distances between points, lines, and planes. - It provides homework problems asking students to find plane equations from points, distances between points and planes, parametric line equations, and distances between lines. - Challenge problems ask students to derive distance formulas for points/spheres, planes/spheres, spheres/spheres, and lines/spheres in 3D, as well as describe hyperplanes in 4D space.

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89 views3 pages

Homework Problems

- This document contains notes on parametric and implicit equations for planes and lines in 3D space, as well as formulas for calculating distances between points, lines, and planes. - It provides homework problems asking students to find plane equations from points, distances between points and planes, parametric line equations, and distances between lines. - Challenge problems ask students to derive distance formulas for points/spheres, planes/spheres, spheres/spheres, and lines/spheres in 3D, as well as describe hyperplanes in 4D space.

Uploaded by

ss_nainamohammed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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7/6/2004 PLANES/DISTANCES

Maths21a

This is part 1 (of 3) of the homework which is due July 13 at the beginning of class.
SUMMARY.
~r(t, s) = P + t~v + sw
~ parametric equation for a plane. P = (x0 , y0 , z0 ) a point ~v , w
~ are
vectors.
ax + by + cz = d, implicit equation for a plane.
~r(t) = P + t~v parametric equation for a line, P a point, ~v is a vector.

(xx0 )
a

(yy0 )
b

(zz0 )
c

symmetric equation for a line.

Distance Point-Point d(P, Q) = |P~Q|.


Distance Point-Plane d(P, ) = |(P~Q) ~n|/|~n|.
Distance Point-Line d(P, L) = |(P~Q) ~u|/|~u|.
Distance Line-Line d(L, M ) = |(P~Q) (~u ~v )|/|~u ~v |.

Homework Problems
1) (4 points) Find the equation for the plane which contains the three points P = (1, 2, 3), Q =
(3, 4, 4) and R = (1, 1, 2).
Solution:
A normal vector ~n = (1, 2, 2) = (a, b, c) of the plane ax + by + cz = d is obtained
as the cross product of P Q and R Q With d = ~n P = 3, we have the equation
x 2y + 2z = 3.
2) (4 points)
a) (3) Find the distance between the point (2, 1, 2) and the plane 4x 2y + z = 2.
b) (1) If no absolute value is taken in the distance formula, what does the sign of the result
say?
Solution:
a) The point Q = (0, 0, 2) is on the plane. The scalar
projection of P Q = (2, 1, 0)
onto the normal vector (4, 2, 1) of the plane is 10/ 21.
b) If (P Q) ~n/|~n| is positive, then the point P is on the side into which the normal
vector points.

3) (4 points)
tetrahedron
has vertices
at the points P 1 = (0, 0, 3),P2 = (0, 8, 1),

A regular
P3 = ( 6, 2, 1) and P4 = ( 6, 2, 1). Find the distance between two edges which
do not intersect.

Solution:

~ =
The vector ~v =(P2 P1 ) = (0, 2 2, 4) is parallel to the first edge, the vector w
(P4 P3 ) =(2 6,0, 0) is parallel to the second edge. The cross product of ~v and w
~ is
the
two
edges
is
the
scalar
projection
of
~n = (0, 8 6, 8 3). The distance between

P3 P1 onto ~n. It is (P3 P1 ).~n/|~n| = 2 3.


4) (4 points) a) Find a parametric equation for the line through the point P = (3, 1, 2) that is
perpendicular to the line L : x = 1 + t, y = 1 t, z = 2t and intersects this line in a point Q.
Solution:
b) The point Q = (1, 1, 0) is on the line. The vector ~v = (1, 1, 2) parallel to the line.
We have P Q = (2, 0, 2). The vector ~n = ~v (~v (P Q)) = (6, 6, 0) is the
direction from P to the normal intersection with the line. The line can be given by
~r(t) = (3 6t, 1 6t, 2).
5) (4 points) Compute the distance of P to L in the previous problem and verify that it is equal
to d(P, Q).
Solution:

The solution is 2. You can get the answer using the distance formula |(P Q) v|/|v|.

Challenge Problems
(Solutions to these problems are not turned in with the homework.)
1) Find distance formulas between
a) A point and a sphere.
a) A plane and a sphere.
c) Two spheres.
d) A line and a sphere.

2) How does one describe a three dimensional hyperplane in four dimensional space? Find a
parametric description and an implicit description.
3) Can you find a line and a two dimensional plane in R4 which are not parallel and which do not
intersect? How would you compute the distance between a line and a two dimensional plane
in R4 ?

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