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Dot Product

Dot Product

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Madhav
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130 views5 pages

Dot Product

Dot Product

Uploaded by

Madhav
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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28/11/2016

DotProduct

DotProduct
Theseare vectors :

Theycanbemultipliedusingthe"DotProduct"(alsosee CrossProduct ).

Calculating
TheDotProductgivesanumberasananswer(a"scalar",notavector).
TheDotProductiswrittenusingacentraldot:

ab
ThismeanstheDotProductofaandb
WecancalculatetheDotProductoftwovectorsthisway:
ab=|a||b|cos()
Where:
|a|isthemagnitude(length)ofvectora
|b|isthemagnitude(length)ofvectorb
istheanglebetweenaandb
Sowemultiplythelengthofatimesthelengthofb,thenmultiplybythecosineoftheangle
betweenaandb

ORwecancalculateitthisway:
ab=axbx+ayby
Sowemultiplythex's,multiplythey's,thenadd.

Bothmethodswork!

Example:Calculatethedotproductofvectorsaandb:

https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/vectorsdotproduct.html

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DotProduct

ab=|a||b|cos()

ab=1013cos(59.5)
ab=10130.5075...
ab=65.98...=66(rounded)
ab=axbx+ayby

ab=65+812
ab=30+96
ab=66
Bothmethodscameupwiththesameresult(afterrounding)
Alsonotethatweusedminus6forax(itisheadinginthenegativexdirection)

Note:youcanusethe VectorCalculator tohelpyou.

Why cos() ?
OK,tomultiplytwovectorsitmakessensetomultiplytheirlengthstogetherbutonlywhenthey
pointinthesamedirection.
Sowemakeone"pointinthesamedirection"astheotherbymultiplyingbycos():

Wetakethecomponentofa
thatliesalongsideb

Likeshiningalighttosee
wheretheshadowlies

THENwemultiply!

Itworksexactlythesameifwe"projected"balongsideathenmultiplied:
https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/vectorsdotproduct.html

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DotProduct

Becauseitdoesn'tmatterwhichorderwedothemultiplication:
|a| |b|cos() = |a|cos() |b|

Right Angles
Whentwovectorsareatrightanglestoeachotherthedotproductiszero.

Example:calculatetheDotProductfor:

ab=|a||b|cos()

ab=|a||b|cos(90)
ab=|a||b|0
ab=0
ab=axbx+ayby

ab=1212+169
ab=144+144
ab=0
Thiscanbeahandywaytofindoutiftwovectorsareatrightangles.

Three or More Dimensions


Thisallworksfinein3(ormore)dimensions,too.
Andcanactuallybeveryuseful!

Example:Samhasmeasuredtheendpointsoftwopoles,andwantsto
knowtheanglebetweenthem:

https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/vectorsdotproduct.html

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DotProduct

Wehave3dimensions,sodon'tforgetthezcomponents:
ab=axbx+ayby+azbz

ab=94+28+710
ab=36+16+70
ab=122

Nowfortheotherformula:
ab=|a||b|cos()
Butwhatis|a|?Itisthemagnitude,orlength,ofthevectora.Wecanuse Pythagoras :
|a|=(4 2+8 2+10 2)
|a|=(16+64+100)
|a|=180
Likewisefor|b|:
|b|=(9 2+2 2+7 2)
|b|=(81+4+49)
|b|=134
Andweknowfromthecalculationabovethatab=122,so:
ab=|a||b|cos()

122=180134cos()
cos()=122/(180134)
cos()=0.7855...
=cos1(0.7855...)=38.2...
Done!

Itriedacalculationlikethatonce,butworkedallinanglesanddistances...itwasveryhard,
involvedlotsoftrigonometry,andmybrainhurt.Themethodaboveismucheasier.

Cross Product

https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/vectorsdotproduct.html

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DotProduct

Cross Product

TheDotProductgivesascalar(ordinarynumber)answer,andissometimescalledthescalar
product.
Butthereisalsothe CrossProduct whichgivesavectorasananswer,andissometimescalled
thevectorproduct.

Question1Question2Question3Question4Question5
Question6Question7Question8Question9Question10

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