Math 427L Week 1

A. M and T problems:
1.1 / 6, 9, 14, 16, 22
1.2 / 11, 12, 13, 14
1.3 / 4, 6, 13, 16c, 25

B. Stewart problems:
none

C. Warm-up problems:
Let a = (1, 2, 3) and b = (3, 1, 4) be vectors and P (4, 2, 1), Q(3, 0, 5), and R(1, 1, 1) be points
in (R)3 .
1. Find proja b.
2. Find||a b||.
3. Find the parametric equations of the line through P and Q.
4. Find the equation of the plane through P, Q and R.
5. Find the angle between a and b.

D. Hand-in Problems:
1. Use projections to find the distance from E(7, 4, 1) to the plane defined by F (3, 2, 1), G(2, 2, 2)
and H(1, 0, 1).
2. A spaceship from Earth travels along the path r(t) = (2, 1, 3)t + (6, 2, 1). A spaceship from
Uranus travels along the path s(t) = (6, 3, 3)t + (4, 1, 8). At what point do the paths of the
spaceships intersect? Do the spaceships crash?
3. Show that for vectors a, b and c we have (a b) c = (a c)b (b c)a.
4. Find the distance from the point A(5, 1, 2) to the line traveled by the spaceship from Uranus
in problem 2.