Prove two vectors are perpendicular (2-D)

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rbnphlp
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Show that (ai+bj)and (-bi+aj) are perpendicular...

im clueless on what to do ..any hints will be greatly apperciated
thanks
I know I am missing something really simple

Also the book has not yet introduced the scalar product so they want me to use some other way
 
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Construct a triangle with these vectors as his sides, and use trigonometry to prove that they have a right angle between them
 
elibj123 said:
Construct a triangle with these vectors as his sides, and use trigonometry to prove that they have a right angle between them

mathman said:
Two vectors are perpendicular if their dot product is zero. For your case, the dot product is -ab+ab=0.

Thanks both of you ..the book hasn't introduced scaler product yet so I don't think they wanted me to use that method ..

I drew a triangle .. OA=(a,b)(|OA|=[itex]\sqrt{a^2+b^2}[/itex]), OB=(-b,a)|OB|[itex]\sqrt{a^2+b^2}[/itex] , then AB=(b+a,b-a)|AB|=[itex]\sqrt{(b+a)^2+(b-a)^2}[/itex]
then I assumed it to be a right triangle and used pythagoras
i.e and is easily shown [itex]|OB|^2+|OA|^2=|AB|^2[/itex] ..
I hope this proof is right thanks