Brian Streit

Math 2451

Section 1.3 Selected Solutions

2 1 0
4 3 2 we observe that …rst row, third row, and third
2. (a) Given
3 0 1
column have "nice" entries so we should expand about one of these. We choose
the …rst row and get

2 1 0
3 2 4 2 4 3
4 3 2 =2 ( 1) +0 = 2(3 0) + (4 6) = 4:
0 1 3 1 3 0
3 0 1

1 4 9
4 9
(c) Given 16 we expand about the last row since it has the largest
9 16 25
numbers and get

1 4 9
4 9 1 9 1 4
4 9 16 =9 16 + 25 = 8:
9 16 4 16 4 9
9 16 25

3. If a = i 2j + k and b = 2i + j + k then

i j k
2 1 1 1 1 2
a b= 1 2 1 = i j+ k= 3i + j + 5k:
1 1 2 1 2 1
2 1 1

4. If a = i 2j + k; b = 2i + j + k; and c = 3i j + 2k then a (b c) =
1 2 1
2 1 1 = 0 since row3 = row1 + row2:
3 1 2

5. The area
p of the parallelogram with
p sides a = i 2j + k and b = 2i + j + k
is ka bk = ( 3)2 + (1)2 + (5)2 = 35:
1
6. A triangle is half of a parallelogram so our desired area is 2 k(1; 1; 1) (0; 2; 3)k.

8. Our desired volume is the absolute value of the determinant

1 0 0
3 1
0 3 1 = = j 1j = 1:
2 1
4 2 1

1
 ( 5;9; 4) (7;8;9)
10. Our desired unit vectors are k( 5;9; 4) (7;8;9)k :

(2; 4;3) ( 4;8; 6)

12. Our desired unit vectors are k(2; 4;3) ( 4;8; 6)k :

16. a) Since the vectors (2; 0; 1) and (0; 4; 3) are parallel to our plane, we
compute a normal vector to the plane, (2; 0; 1) (0; 4; 3) = (4; 6; 8). Since
our plane contains the origin, it has equation 4x + 6y + 8z = 0:
c) Here, we …nd vectors parallel to our plane are (2; 1; 3) (0; 0; 5) =
(2; 1; 2) and (5; 7; 1) (0; 0; 5) = (5; 7; 6). So (2; 1; 2) (5; 7; 6) =
(20; 4; 19) is a normal vector to our plane. Therefore, the equation of our
plane is 20(x 0) 4(y 0) + 19(z 5) = 0 or 20x 4y + 19z = 95.

18. Given x + 2y + z = 0 and x 3y z = 0; we observe that (1; 2; 1) and

(1; 3; 1) are normal vectors to the two planes, respectively. Therefore, the
line of intersection must be in the direction of the vector (1; 2; 1) (1; 3; 1) =
(1; 2; 5). Since (0; 0; 0) satis…es both our planar equations, we see that our
line contains the origin and therefore the equation of our desired line is l(t) =
(t; 2t; 5t). To check our answer we can substitute the coordinates of our line
into our planar equations to verify that both equations are satis…ed.

20. Given 3(x 1)+2y+z +1 = 0 and x 1+4y (z +1) = 0 we observe that

(3; 2; 1) and (1; 4; 1) are normal vectors to the respective planes. Therefore,
the line of intersection must be in the direction of the vector (3; 2; 1) (1; 4; 1) =
( 6; 4; 10). From our give planar equations, we see that (1; 0; 1) is a point
shared by the two planes and therefore l(t) = (1 6t; 4t; 10t 1) is our desired
line of intersection.

22. a) Since
u1 u2 u3
u (v w) = v1 v2 v3
w1 w2 w3
and interchanging two rows changes the sign of the determinant, our desired
result follows.
b) Using part a), problem 21 a), and the de…nition of 2 2 determinant we
have

(u v) (u0 v0 ) = u0 (v0 (u v)) = u0 (u (v0 v) v(v0 u))

= (u u0 )(v v0 ) (u v0 ) (u0 v)
u u0 u v0
= :
u0 v v v0

24. We …rst …nd a vector parallel to the segment from the point (2; 1; 3)
to the vector v(t) = (1; 2; 2) + t(3; 2; 4). Such a vector is

u(t) = (3t 1; 2t 1; 4t 1):

2
Now we want u(t) perpendicular to the vector in the direction of the line de…ned
by v(t) so
5
u(t) (3; 2; 4) = 0 , 9t 3 + 4t + 2 + 16t 4=0,t= :
29
Thus, a vector that is perpendicular to our line v(t) and normal to our desired
plane is
5 14 39 9
u( ) = ( ; ; ):
29 29 29 29
5 5
But we only care about the direction of u( 29 ) and 29u( 29 ) is in the same
5
direction as u( 29 ) so we use

5
29u( ) = ( 14; 39; 9)
29
as a normal in the computation for our planar equation to make things a little
easier. Now, since (2; 1; 3) is a point on our desired plane, we …nd the equation
of the plane to be

( 14; 39; 9) (x 2; y + 1; z 3) = 0 or 14x 39y + 9z = 16:

26. Since (3; 1; 2) is a normal vector to the given plane, we have l(t) =
(1; 2; 3) + t(3; 1; 2) is a line perpendicular to the given plane and through
the point (1; 2; 3).

28. The distance from a point (x1 ; y1 ; z1 ) to a plane Ax + By + Cz + D = 0

is given by
jAx1 + By1 + Cz1 + Dj
p :
A2 + B 2 + C 2
Here, A = 1; B = 2; C = 2; D = 5 and (x1 ; y1 ; z1 ) = (2; 1; 1) so our desired
distance is j2 2 3 2+5j = 1.

30. Since our desired plane is parallel to the line v(t) = (1; 1; 0) +
t(3; 2; 2); our plane is parallel to the vector (3; 2; 2): Since our plane con-
tains the points (3; 2; 1) and (1; 1; 2), it is parallel to the vector (3; 2; 1)
(1; 1; 2) = (2; 3; 3). So, a vector normal to our plane is (3; 2; 2) (2; 3; 3) =
(0; 5; 5) or, more conveniently, (0; 1; 1). Therefore our planar equation is (0; 1; 1)
(x 1; y + 1; z 2) = 0 or y + z = 1:

32. Given vectors a and b, do the equations x a = b and x a = kak

determine a unique vector x? First, we observe that

x a = b )(x a) a = 0 = b a

so a vector x; satisfying the two given equations, exists if and only if a is

orthogonal to b. So, we assume a b = 0 throughout the following arguments.

3
Let us …rst assume that a = 0. In this case any x satis…es the two equations,
so a solutions exists but it is not unique. Now, we assume a 6= 0 and b = 0.
Since x a = 0, we must have that x = a for some 2 R. Since
2
x a = kak = kak
1 a
,we must have = kak so x = kak is our unique solution. Finally, we suppose
a 6= 0 and b 6= 0. Since a b = 0, we see that fa; b; a bg is a spanning
linearly independent set, or basis, for R3 : Therefore, for any u 2 R3 there exist
; ; 2 R such that
u = a + b + (a b):
But then
2 1
x a= kak = kak so = :
kak
Next, using some cross product properties, we have
a
x a=( + b + (a b)) a= b a + (a b) a
kak
and using the "bac cab" identity

a (b c) = b(a c) c(a b)

we have
2
(a b) a = b(a a) c(a b) = kak b:
1
Thus, x a = b implies = 0 and = kak2
. We see that

a (a b)
x= + 2
kak kak
is the unique solution to our equation when a 6= 0 and b 6= 0:

36. We want to show that the plane through A = (a1 ; a2 ; a3 ); B = (b1 ; b2 ; b3 )

and C = (c1 ; c2 ; c3 ) consists of the points P = (x; y; z) given by

a1 x a2 y a3 z
b1 x b2 y b3 z = 0:
c1 x c2 y c3 z

But, by de…nition, the set of points (x; y; z) in the plane with normal n contain-
ing A = (a1 ; a2 ; a3 ) is de…ned by the equation

(x a1 ; y a2 ; z a3 ) n = 0:

We see that
a1 x a2 y a3 z
b1 x b2 y b3 z =0
c1 x c2 y c3 z

4
is equivalent to
x a1 y a2 z a3
b1 a1 b2 a2 b3 a3 =0
c1 a1 c2 a2 c3 a3
and using the triple product identity we see that this is equivalent to

(x a1 ; y a2 ; z a3 ) ((b1 a1 ; b2 a2 ; b3 a3 ) (c1 a1 ; c2 a2 ; c3 a3 ) = 0:
! !
Since AB AC is normal to the plane and A is a point in the plane, we see that
this determinant de…nition is equivalent to the usual de…nition stated above.