MAST10008 Accelerated Mathematics 1
MAST10008 Accelerated Mathematics 1
Q4. A2 = ||a × b||2 = ||a||2 ||b||2 sin2 θ where θ is the angle between a and b. Hence
Q5. The line has direction (1, 0, −2) − (0, 0, −1) = (1, 0, −1).
So
2x + 4y − 7z = 2 × 5 + 4 × 0 − 7 × 1 = 3 6= 5
Q7. Two vectors in the plane are given by u = (2, −1, 4) − (3, 2, 1) = (−1, −3, 3) and
v = (5, 1, 1) − (3, 2, 1) = (2, −1, 0).
So the vector equation is r = (3, 2, 1) + s(−1, −3, 3) + t(2, −1, 0), s, t ∈ R.
A normal vector to the plane is
i j k
n = (−1, −3, 3) × (2, −1, 0) = −1 −3 3 = (3, 6, 7)
2 −1 0
From this we read off the solution as x = 1 − t, y = z = t. Hence the intersection is the line
Q9. (a) The directions of the lines L1 and L2 are given by u = (1, 1, 2) and v = (−1, 2, 1)
respectively. So the lines are not parallel.
(b) The vector n = u × v = 3(−1, −1, 1) is perpendicular to both lines.
Points on L1 and L2 are P = (0, 1, 1) and Q = (4, 1, 2) respectively.
The shortest distance between the lines is
−→
P Q · n √
= 3.
knk
(c) The lines are skew, since they are not parallel and do not intersect.