MA2104 Week 01
MA2104 Week 01
1 Vectors
Dot Product, Projections
Cross Product, Scalar Triple Product
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Vectors
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Two vectors are the equal if they have the same length and the
same direction. The position of its initial point does not matter.
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Vectors
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Vectors
a + b = ⟨a1 + b1 , a2 + b2 , a3 + b3 ⟩.
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Vectors
⟨a, b, c⟩ = ai + bj + ck.
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Vectors
Theorem 1
If a ̸= 0, then a unit vector in the same direction as a is given by
u = a/ ||a|| .
a 1
||u|| = = ||a|| = 1.
||a|| ||a||
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Dot Product
a · b = a1 b1 + a2 b2 + a3 b3 .
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Dot Product
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Dot Product
0 ≤ θ ≤ π.
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Dot Product
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Dot Product
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Dot Product
Example 1
Find the angle between the vectors a = ⟨2, 1, −3⟩ and
b = ⟨1, 5, 6⟩.
Solution.
a·b −11
cos θ = =√ √ .
||a|| ||b|| 14 62
−11
θ = cos−1 √ √ ≈ 1.953 radian.
14 62
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Dot Product
Theorem 4
Two nonzero vectors a and b are orthogonal if and only if
a · b = 0.
Proof.
||a|| ||b|| cos θ = a · b = 0
if and only if cos θ = 0, if and only if θ = π2 , which is equivalent
to saying that a and b are orthogonal. ■
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Projections
−→
The vector PS is called the vector projection of b onto a,
denoted by
proja b.
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Projections
a·b
compa b = ||b|| cos θ = .
||a||
π
This value is negative if 2 < θ ≤ π, where θ is the angle
between a and b.
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Projections
Therefore,
' $
a a·b a a·b a·b
proja b = compa b × = = 2
a= a.
||a|| ||a|| ||a|| ||a|| a·a
& %
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Projections
Example 2
Let a = ⟨−2, 3, 1⟩ and b = ⟨1, 1, 2⟩. Find the scalar projection
and vector projection of b onto a.
Solution.
a·b (−2)(1) + 3(1) + 1(2) 3
compa b = = √ =√ .
||a|| 14 14
3 a 3 3 9 3
proja b = √ = a = ⟨− , , ⟩.
14 ||a|| 14 7 14 14
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Cross Product
i j k
a×b = a1 a2 a3
b1 b2 b3
a2 a3 a1 a3 a1 a2
= i− j+ k
b2 b3 b1 b3 b1 b2
= (a2 b3 − a3 b2 )i − (a1 b3 − a3 b1 )j + (a1 b2 − a2 b1 )k.
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Cross Product
Theorem 5
The vector a × b is orthogonal to both a and b.
a2 a3 a1 a3 a1 a2
(a × b) · a = a1 − a2 + a3
b2 b3 b1 b3 b1 b2
= 0.
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Cross Product
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Theorem 6 (Properties of cross product)
If a, b and c are vectors and d is a scalar, then
(i) a × b = −b × a
(ii) (da) × b = d(a × b) = a × (db)
(iii) a × (b + c) = a × b + a × c
(iv) (a + b) × c = a × c + b × c
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Cross Product
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Cross Product
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Cross Product
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Cross Product
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Scalar Triple Product
a · (b × c)
a1 a2 a3
= b1 b2 b3 .
c1 c2 c3
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Scalar Triple Product
A = ||b × c|| .
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Scalar Triple Product
V = Ah
= ||b × c|| ||a|| | cos θ|
= |a · (b × c)|.
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Scalar Triple Product
Example 3
Determine whether the vectors are coplanar: a = ⟨2, 3, 1⟩,
b = ⟨1, 0, 2⟩, c = ⟨0, 3, −3⟩.
2 3 1
|a · (b × c)| = 1 0 2
0 3 −3
= |2(−6) − 3(−3) + 1(3)|
= 0.
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Lines
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Lines
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Lines
−−→ −−→
Note that P0 P = tv for some scalar t since P0 P and v are
parallel. So
−−→
r = r0 + P0 P,
so that
r = r0 + tv
which is a vector equation of L.
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Lines
Then
r = r0 + tv
⟨x, y, z⟩ = ⟨x0 , y0 , z0 ⟩ + t⟨a, b, c⟩.
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Lines
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Lines
Example 4
Find an equation of the line passing through P(1, 2, −1) and
Q(5, −3, 4).
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Lines
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Lines
parallel;
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Lines
Example 5
Show that the lines
L2 : x − 1 = s, y − 2 = −s, z − 1 = 3s,
are skew.
Solution. A vector parallel to L1 is a = ⟨−1, 2, 2⟩ and a vector
parallel to L2 is b = ⟨1, −1, 3⟩. Since a is not a scalar multiple of
b, these lines are not parallel.
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Lines
2 − t = 1 + s,
so that s = 1 − t.
The y -coordinate must satisfy
y = 1 + 2t = 2 − s.
t = 0, s = 1.
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Lines
z = 5 + 2t = 0,
z = 1 + 3s = 4,
which is absurd!
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Planes
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Planes
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Planes
−−→
Then r − r0 is represented by P0 P.
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Planes
n · (r − r0 ) = 0
which can be written as
n · r = n · r0 .
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Planes
Then n · r = n · r0 becomes
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Planes
ax + by + cz = d,
where
d = ax0 + by0 + cz0 .
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Planes
Example 6
Find an equation of the plane that passes through the points
P(1, 3, 2), Q(3, −1, 6), R(5, 2, 0).
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Planes
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Planes
6x + 10y + 7z = 50.
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Planes
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Planes
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Planes
Example 7
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Planes
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Planes
x = 3 − 2y − z and x = 5 + 4y − 3z.
3 − 2y − z = 5 + 4y − 3z
z = 3y + 1
x = 3 − 2y − (3y + 1) = −5y + 2.
Let y = t be the parameter, we obtain a parametric equation for
the line of intersection
x = −5t + 2, y = t, z = 3t + 1.
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Planes
Example 8
Find an equation of the plane containing the point (0, 1, 2) and
the line given by
x = t, y = t, z = 2t + 5, t ∈ R.
Two vectors on the plane are ⟨0, 0, 5⟩ − ⟨0, 1, 2⟩ = ⟨0, −1, 3⟩,
and ⟨1, 1, 2⟩.
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Planes
5x − 3y − z + 5 = 0.
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Planes
Example 9
Find the (shortest) distance between the following planes:
x + 2y + 5z = 6, x + 2y + 5z = 11.
Let
u = ⟨11, 0, 0⟩ − ⟨6, 0, 0⟩ = ⟨5, 0, 0⟩.
A normal vector to the planes is
n = ⟨1, 2, 5⟩.
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Planes
u·n 5
||u|| | cos θ| = =√ .
||n|| 30
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Planes
Example 10
Find the angle between adjacent sides i.e. the angle between
the plane OPTS and the plane PQUT of the following
symmetric-looking chute.
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Planes
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Planes
Then we have:
S(−1, −1, 8), T (7, −1, 8), U(7, 7, 8), V (−1, 7, 8).
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Planes
−→ −→
u = OP × OS = ⟨0, −48, −6⟩,
−→ −→
v = PQ × PT = ⟨48, 0, −6⟩.
The angle between u and v is
u·v 36
cos−1 = cos−1 ≈ 89◦ .
||u|| ||v|| 482 + 36
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Vector functions of one variable
A vector-valued function is
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Vector functions of one variable
r(t) = ⟨t, t 2 ⟩, t ∈ R
r(t) = ⟨t 3 , t 6 ⟩, t ∈ R
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Vector functions of one variable
Example 11
Sketch the curve traced out by the vector-valued function
Solution.
y 2
x2 + = sin2 t + cos2 t = 1
3
which is the equation of an ellipse in 2-D.
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Vector functions of one variable
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Tangent vector
f (a + △x) − f (a)
f ′ (a) = lim
△x→0 △x
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Tangent vector
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Tangent vector
r(a+△t)−r(a)
As △t → 0, △t approaches r′ (a).
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Tangent vector
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Tangent vector
‘component-wise’!!!
" !
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Tangent vector
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Tangent vector
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Tangent vector
Example 12
Find the tangent line L to the curve r(t) = ⟨cos t, sin t, t⟩ at
(0, 1, π/2).
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Tangent vector
So a parametric equation of L is
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Arc length
Our formula for arc length only applies to smooth curves, i.e.
curves that do not have sharp corners at their interior points.
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Arc length
Our assumption:
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Arc length
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Arc length
Step 1.
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Arc length
Step 2.
Let si denote the arc length of that portion of the curve traced
out as t increases from ti−1 to ti .
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Arc length
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Arc length
This yields
q
si ≈ (f (ti ) − f (ti−1 ))2 + (g(ti ) − g(ti−1 ))2 + (h(ti ) − h(ti−1 ))2
q
≈ (f ′ (ci )△t)2 + (g ′ (di )△t)2 + (h′ (ei )△t)2
q
≈ f ′ (ci )2 + g ′ (di )2 + h′ (ei )2 △t.
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Arc length
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Arc length
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Arc length
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Arc length
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Arc length
Example 13
Find the arclength of the curve traced out by the endpoint of the
vector-valued function r(t) = ⟨2t, ln t, t 2 ⟩ for 1 ≤ t ≤ e.
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Arc length
s
Z e 2
1
s = 22 + + (2t)2 dt
1 t
r
e
1 + 4t 2 + 4t 4
Z
= dt
1 t2
r
e
(1 + 2t 2 )2
Z
= dt
1 t2
Z e Z e
1 + 2t 2
1
= dt = + 2t dt
1 t 1 t
h ie
= ln |t| + t 2
1
= (ln e + e2 ) − (ln 1 + 1) = e2 .
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