Why are my results not matching for orthonormalized vectors?

Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
3 replies · 2K views
Shackleford
Messages
1,649
Reaction score
2
I found the final answer posted online, but my work doesn't match up.

v1 = 3t
v2 = 5t1/2 - 6t

Orthonormalized:

[itex] v_1 = \sqrt{3}t[/itex] is correct.

[itex] v_2 = \frac{1}{\sqrt{61}}(5t^{1/2} - 6t)[/itex] does not match.

Furthermore, my part (b) is wrong, too. I know my methods are correct. I don't understand why the answers aren't matching.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n149/camarolt4z28/IMG_20120211_095108.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n149/camarolt4z28/File.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Physics news on Phys.org
I realized some of my arithmetic is wrong/incomplete towards the end on (b). It's even worse now.
 
Well, for one thing ##v_1## isn't ##3t##. It is ##t\sqrt 3 ##.
 
LCKurtz said:
Well, for one thing ##v_1## isn't ##3t##. It is ##t\sqrt 3 ##.

Okay, yeah. I see what I wrote down that wasn't exactly right. Let me see if I didn't anything else wrong for the second orthogonal vector.

I found the problem. Thanks!
 
Last edited: