2 Vector Geometry

We have already seen that vectors can be used very ef-

fectively for proving geometric results. In this chapter
we continue studying vectors and we shall see how they
can be used to find shortest distances between points,
lines and planes, as well as some other applications. As
always, we need to learn some new concepts first.
Recall that earlier we defined the length of a vector a
Rn to be q
|a| = a21 + + a2n.
The reason for this definition was that if n = 2 or 3 this
is just Pythagoras theorem and so it is natural to extend
the definition to higher dimensions.
We do a similar thing for the angle between 2 vectors,
but first we need a simple definition.

1
2.1 The dot product.
Definition 2.1. Let a, b Rn. The dot product of
these two vectors is

: Rn Rn 7 R

a b = a1b1 + a2b2 + + anbn.

Proposition 2.2.

a a = |a|2.

This is a very useful result, and we will use it often. Some

other useful, and equally easy results to prove are:

2
Proposition 2.3.

1. a b = b a.

2. a(b) = (a b).

3. a(b + c) = a b + a c.

4. (a + b)c = a c + b c.

As a consequence
(a + b) (c + d) =

3

1 1

2 2
Example 2.4. Let a =
3 and b = 1 .


4 3
Find a b.

4
2.2 Angle between two vectors.
Example 2.5. Let A, B be points and let be the

angle between a = OA and b = OB. By applying the
cosine rule OAB prove that

a b = |a||b| cos .

We now use the above result to come up with the defini-

tion of the angle between two vectors in arbitrary dimen-
sions, just as we did for length.

5
Definition 2.6. Let a, b Rn. The angle between
a and b is given by
ab
cos = , where 0 .
|a||b|

1

1
Example 2.7. Find the angle between
0 and


3

4

2
1 .


2

6
Example 2.8. If the angle between a and b is . What
is the angle between a and b? What is the angle be-
tween 3a and b?

7
2.3 Orthogonality and projection
Recall that given vectors a, b Rn the angle between
the two vectors and the dot product of the two vectors
are related by
a b = |a||b| cos .

If we substitute = 2 then a b = 0. Thus we have the
following definition:

Definition 2.9. Let a, b Rn. If a b = 0 then a and

b are orthogonal or perpendicular or normal to
one another. A set S = {v1, , vn} is said to be
orthonormal if
(
0, i 6= j
vi vj =
1, i = j

Lets see what this looks like with GeoGebra.

8
Example 2.10. Let

1
2
13 1
6

v1 = 0 , v2 =
1 , v3 = 2 .
3 6
12 13 1
6

S = {v1, v2, v3} is an orthonormal set. Write

Show that

1
6
2

as a linear combination of vectors from S.
6
3
6

9
Example 2.11 (Thales Theorem). Show that the an-
gle inside a semicircle is a right angle.

Definition 2.12. The projection of a onto b is de-

fined to be  
ab
projba = b.
|b|2

10
Example 2.13. Show (aprojba)projba = 0. Draw
a digram showing a, b and projba.

11

2 1

1 3
Example 2.14. Let a =
,b = . Find
2 0

3 2
projba.

12
Example 2.15. Find the shortest distance between
P = [1, 2, 3] and the line

2 1
x = 3 + 1 , R.

1 0

13
2.4 Cross product
For this section we concentrate on geometry in R3. In
the last section we learnt about the dot product of two
vectors and saw that the dot product of two vectors in
Rn was a real number. We now learn about another type
of product which is only available in R3 and produces
another vector.

a1
Definition 2.16. The cross product of a = a2

a3

b1
and b = b2 is defined to be

b3

: R3 R3 7 R3

a2b3 a3b2
a b = a3b1 a1b3 .

a1b2 a2b1

14
One way to remember this is to memorise the first compo-
nent, and compute subsequent components by changing
the subscript using the permutation:

1231

From the first component you can compute the second:

a2b3 a3b2

a3b1 a1b3
From the second component you can compute the third:

a3b1 a1b3

Proposition 2.17. a b is orthogonal to both a and

b.

15

2 1
Example 2.18. Let a = 1 and b = 2 .

3 3
Find c = a b. Verify that c is orthogonal to both a
and b.

16
Example 2.19. Find the normal to the plane passing
through A = (1, 2, 3), B = (2, 3, 5), C = (7, 4, 5).

17
Proposition 2.20. Let a, b, c R3 and R. Then:

1. a a = 0.

2. a b = b a.

3. a (b) = (a b).

4. a (b + c) = a b + a c.

As with the dot product, the cross product of two vectors

is closely related to the angle between the two vectors.

Proposition 2.21. Let a, b R3 and let be the

angle between these two vectors. Then

|a b| = |a||b| sin().

18

2 1
Example 2.22. Let a = 1 and b = 2 (as

3 3
in Example 2.18). Find the area of the triangle formed by
a and b. Also find the area of the parallelogram spanned
by these two vectors.

19
2.5 Scalar triple product
A parallelepiped is the three-dimensional analogue of
the parallelogram.

O C

If we let a = OA, b = OB and c = OC then its volume
is given by
V = |a (b c)|.
Lets see what this looks like with GeoGebra.
The expression a (b c) is called the scalar triple
product of a, b and c.

20
Example 2.23. Find the volume of the parallelepiped
spanned by

1 3 4
2 2 3 .
, ,

3 7 7

21
Example 2.24. Show that the points
A(3, 3, 5), B(1, 0, 1), C(2, 2, 4), D(2, 1, 2) are copla-
nar.

2.6 Planes in R3
We have already seen that planes in R3 can be written in
two different forms

ax1 + bx2 + cx3 = d Cartesian form

x = a + 1v1 + 2v2 Parametric vector form

We have seen how to go between these two forms.

22
There is another form, very similar to the Cartesian form
and that is:

Definition 2.25. Let n, a R3. The point-normal

form of a plane is an expression of the form

n (x a) = 0.

Here n is called the normal vector to the plane and

a is the coordinate vector of any point on the plane.
Useful diagram:

To go from the point-normal form to the Cartesian form,

simply expand out the point normal form.

23

1 4
Example 2.26. Write 2 x 5 = 0 in

3 6
Cartesian form.

Going the other way, from Cartesian form to the point-

normal form is easy. Simply note that the normal to

ax1 + bx2 + cx3 = d

a
is n = b .

24
Example
2.27. Explain why the normal is indeed n =
a
b . Write x1 + 2x2 + 3x3 = 4 in point-normal form.

Finally, if we have a plane in parametric vector form

x = a + 1 v 1 + 2 v 2 , 1, 2 R.

To convert this to point-normal form we simply need to

find the normal vector. Luckily, this is easy:

n = v1 v2 .

25
Example 2.28. Let

1 2 5
x = 2 + 1 1 + 2 4 , 1 , 2 R

3 3 1
Write this plane in point-normal form, and then in Carte-
sian form.

2.6.1 Distance between a point and a plane

We can use what we have learnt to solve an interesting

geometrical problem. We have already seen how to find
the shortest distance between a point and a line. We will
26
now learn how to find the shortest distance between a
point and a plane in R3.
The shortest distance between a point P and a plane in
R3 is found by:

1. Finding any point on the plane, say A.

2. Finding the normal to the place n.

3. The shortest distance is given by

|projnAP |

27
Example 2.29. Find the shortest distance between
the plane passing through A(1, 2, 3), B(3, 2, 1) and
C(4, 5, 6) and the point P (4, 2, 3).

28
 Dot Product Cross Product Scalar Triple Product
Input a, b Rn a, b R3 a, b, c R3
Output R R3 R
Angle a b = |a| |b| cos() |a b| = |a||b| sin()
29

Geometry ab |a b| = |a (b c)| =
measures angle area of parallelogram area of parallelipied
Ordered? No a b = b a No

Table 1: Comparison of different vector products