MHB Find value of x and area of parallelogram: a,b,c,P

AI Thread Summary
To find the value of x in vector a = (2, x, 0) such that the angle between vectors a and b = (1, 0, -1) is π/4, the cosine formula for angles between vectors is applied. The dot product of a and b, along with their magnitudes, is used to establish the relationship needed to solve for x. Once x is determined, the area of the parallelogram formed by the unit vector in the direction of b and vector c = (5, -9, 3) can be calculated using the cross product. The area is given by the magnitude of the vector product of the two vectors. This approach effectively combines vector algebra with geometric principles to solve the problem.
Niamh1
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Hello, could someone please help me with this question? I don't even know where to begin.

Given vectors a = (2, x, 0), b = (1, 0, −1) and c = (5, −9, 3), and let P(2, 1, −1)
be a point. Find the value of x in a such that the angle between a and b is π/4, then find the area of parallelogram with adjacent sides are bˆ and c, where bˆ is the unit vector in the direction of b
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
You should use the following facts.

The cosine of angle between $$v_1=(x_1,y_1,z_1)$$ and $v_2=(x_2,y_2,z_2)$ is $\dfrac{v_1\cdot v_2}{|v_1|\cdot|v_2|}$. Here $v_1\cdot v_2=x_1x_2+y_1y_2+z_1z_2$ is the dot product, or scalar product, of $v_1$ and $v_2$. The length of $v_1$ is denoted by $|v_1|$ and equals $\sqrt{v_1\cdot v_1}$.

The unit vector in the direction of $v$ is $\dfrac{v}{|v|}$.

The signed area of the parallelogram with adjacent sides $$v_1=(x_1,y_1,z_1)$$ and $v_2=(x_2,y_2,z_2)$ is $|v_1\times v_2|$. Here $v_1\times v_2$ is the vector product of $v_1$ and $v_2$, and it equals $\begin{vmatrix}i&j&k\\x_1&y_1&z_1\\x_2&y_2&z_2\end{vmatrix}$, where $i$, $j$ and $k$ are mutually perpendicular unit vectors in the directions of the coordinate axes.
 
Evgeny.Makarov said:
You should use the following facts.

The cosine of angle between $$v_1=(x_1,y_1,z_1)$$ and $v_2=(x_2,y_2,z_2)$ is $\dfrac{v_1\cdot v_2}{|v_1|\cdot|v_2|}$. Here $v_1\cdot v_2=x_1x_2+y_1y_2+z_1z_2$ is the dot product, or scalar product, of $v_1$ and $v_2$. The length of $v_1$ is denoted by $|v_1|$ and equals $\sqrt{v_1\cdot v_1}$.

The unit vector in the direction of $v$ is $\dfrac{v}{|v|}$.

The signed area of the parallelogram with adjacent sides $$v_1=(x_1,y_1,z_1)$$ and $v_2=(x_2,y_2,z_2)$ is $|v_1\times v_2|$. Here $v_1\times v_2$ is the vector product of $v_1$ and $v_2$, and it equals $\begin{vmatrix}i&j&k\\x_1&y_1&z_1\\x_2&y_2&z_2\end{vmatrix}$, where $i$, $j$ and $k$ are mutually perpendicular unit vectors in the directions of the coordinate axes.

Because the rule of the cosine of the angle is not entirely obvious, if you have two vectors $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \mathbf{a} \end{align*}$ and $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \mathbf{b} \end{align*}$, then they can form two sides of a triangle, with the third side being the vector $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \mathbf{a} - \mathbf{b} \end{align*}$. Then if $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \theta \end{align*}$ is the angle between vectors $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \mathbf{a} \end{align*}$ and $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \mathbf{b} \end{align*}$, we can relate the four pieces of information with the cosine rule:

$\displaystyle \begin{align*} \left| \mathbf{a} - \mathbf{b} \right| ^2 &= \left| \mathbf{a} \right| ^2 + \left| \mathbf{b} \right| ^2 - 2\,\left| \mathbf{a}\right| \left| \mathbf{b}\right| \, \cos{ \left( \theta \right) } \\ \left( a_1 - b_1 \right) ^2 + \left( a_2 - b_2 \right) ^2 + \left( a_3 - b_3 \right) ^2 &= \left| \mathbf{a} \right| ^2 + \left| \mathbf{b} \right| ^2 - 2\,\left| \mathbf{a} \right| \left| \mathbf{b} \right| \,\cos{ \left( \theta \right) } \\ a_1^2 -2\,a_1\,b_1 + b_1^2 + a_2^2 - 2\,a_2\,b_2 + b_2^2 + a_3^2 -2\,a_3\,b_3 + b_3^2 &= \left| \mathbf{a} \right| ^2 + \left| \mathbf{b} \right| ^2 - 2\,\left| \mathbf{a} \right| \left| \mathbf{b} \right| \,\cos{ \left( \theta \right) } \\ a_1^2 + a_2^2 + a_3^2 + b_1^2 + b_2^2 + b_3^2 - 2\,\left( a_1\,b_1 + a_2\,b_2 + a_3\,b_3 \right) &= \left| \mathbf{a} \right| ^2 + \left| \mathbf{b} \right| ^2 - 2\,\left| \mathbf{a} \right| \left| \mathbf{b} \right| \,\cos{ \left( \theta \right) } \\ \left| \mathbf{a} \right| ^2 + \left| \mathbf{b} \right| ^2 - 2\,\mathbf{a}\cdot \mathbf{b} &= \left| \mathbf{a} \right| ^2 + \left| \mathbf{b} \right| ^2 - 2\,\left| \mathbf{a} \right| \left| \mathbf{b} \right| \,\cos{ \left( \theta \right) } \\ -2\,\mathbf{a}\cdot \mathbf{b} &= -2\,\left| \mathbf{a} \right| \left| \mathbf{b} \right| \,\cos{ \left( \theta \right) } \\ \mathbf{a}\cdot \mathbf{b} &= \left| \mathbf{a} \right| \left| \mathbf{b} \right|\,\cos{ \left( \theta \right) } \\ \cos{ \left( \theta \right) } &= \frac{\mathbf{a}\cdot \mathbf{b}}{\left| \mathbf{a} \right| \left| \mathbf{b} \right| } \end{align*}$
 
Suppose ,instead of the usual x,y coordinate system with an I basis vector along the x -axis and a corresponding j basis vector along the y-axis we instead have a different pair of basis vectors ,call them e and f along their respective axes. I have seen that this is an important subject in maths My question is what physical applications does such a model apply to? I am asking here because I have devoted quite a lot of time in the past to understanding convectors and the dual...
Thread 'Imaginary Pythagorus'
I posted this in the Lame Math thread, but it's got me thinking. Is there any validity to this? Or is it really just a mathematical trick? Naively, I see that i2 + plus 12 does equal zero2. But does this have a meaning? I know one can treat the imaginary number line as just another axis like the reals, but does that mean this does represent a triangle in the complex plane with a hypotenuse of length zero? Ibix offered a rendering of the diagram using what I assume is matrix* notation...
Back
Top