Calculating Angle of Deviation when Building Tilted on Plane

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on calculating the angle of deviation of a vertical building after a horizontal plane is tilted using points A=(0,0,0), B=(1,2,0), and C=(0,3,1). The user initially attempted to find the angle using the cross product of vectors B and C relative to A, resulting in a vector (2, -1, 3). The angle was then calculated using the dot product with the vertical direction vector (0, 1, 0), leading to an incorrect result of 1.84 radians. The correct vertical direction should be (0, 0, 1), which is crucial for accurate calculations.

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Homework Statement



A vertical building was built on a horizontal plane. The plane is then tilted to A=(0,0,0) B=(1,2,0) and C=(0,3,1). By what angle (in radians) does the building now deviate from the vertical?


Homework Equations



Dot Product
Cross Product

The Attempt at a Solution



So what I did was take the cross product of the B and C, relative to A.

BxC = |2 0|, |1 0|, |1 2| = (2, -1, 3)
...|3 1|, -|0 1|, |0 3|

Now this is the part where I don't know what to do.

I took the Dot product of (BxC) with (0, 1, 0)

theta = arccos (u.v)/(|u||v|) = (-1/[tex]\sqrt{}14[/tex][tex]\sqrt{}1[/tex])

and i got an angle to be 1.84 in radians, which was wrong. I don't know what the answer is, I'm using webwork
So if anyone can help me, that would be great.

Thanks
 
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Why do you think the vertical direction is (0,1,0)? My guess would have been that they meant it to be (0,0,1).
 
Your Right! I must of been thinking in 2D..
Thank You Dick!
 

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