38 CHAPTER 3.

VECTOR PRODUCTS

Therefore,
|a× (b + c)| |a × c| |a × b|
= = = |a|
|b + c| |c| |b|
and so
|a× (b + c)| |b + c| |a× (b + c)| |b + c|
= , =
|a × c| |c| |a × b| |b|
showing the triangles making up the parallelogram on the right and the four sided figure on the left
in the above picture are similar. It follows the four sided figure on the left is in fact a parallelogram
and this implies the diagonal is the vector sum of the vectors on the sides, yielding 3.27.
Now suppose it is not necessarily the case that a · b = a · c = 0. Then write b = b|| + b⊥ where
b⊥ · a = 0. Similarly c = c|| + c⊥ . By the above lemma and what was just shown,

a× (b + c) = a× (b + c)⊥ = a× (b⊥ + c⊥ )
= a × b⊥ + a × c⊥ = a × b + a × c. 

The result of Problem 18 of the exercises 3.3 is used to go from the first to the second line.

3.4.2 The Box Product

Definition 3.4.10 A parallelepiped determined by the three vectors, a, b, and c consists of

{ra+sb + tc : r, s, t ∈ [0, 1]} .

That is, if you pick three numbers, r, s, and t each in [0, 1] and form ra+sb + tc, then the collection
of all such points is what is meant by the parallelepiped determined by these three vectors.

The following is a picture of such a thing.You notice the area of the base of the parallelepiped,
the parallelogram determined by the vectors, a and b
has area equal to |a × b| while the altitude of the par-
allelepiped is |c| cos θ where θ is the angle shown in the
6 picture between c and a × b. Therefore, the volume of
a×b this parallelepiped is the area of the base times the alti-
tude which is just

c |a × b| |c| cos θ = a × b · c.
3 This expression is known as the box product and is some-
θ b
a - times written as [a, b, c] . You should consider what hap-
pens if you interchange the b with the c or the a with the
c. You can see geometrically from drawing pictures that
this merely introduces a minus sign. In any case the box product of three vectors always equals
either the volume of the parallelepiped determined by the three vectors or else minus this volume.

Example 3.4.11 Find the volume of the parallelepiped determined by the vectors, i + 2j − 5k, i +
3j − 6k,3i + 2j + 3k.

According to the above discussion, pick any two of these, take the cross product and then take
the dot product of this with the third of these vectors. The result will be either the desired volume
or minus the desired volume.
 
 i j k 
 
 
(i + 2j − 5k) × (i + 3j − 6k) =  1 2 −5  = 3i + j + k
 
 1 3 −6 

Now take the dot product of this vector with the third which yields

(3i + j + k) · (3i + 2j + 3k) = 9 + 2 + 3 = 14.