Assignment 1 (4 Questions)

MA2104

To be handed in by 2pm Friday 7 February (Week 4) to the mailboxes outside LT34 on

Level 3 of S17. Please drop it into the right box according to your tutorial group.
Remember to write your name and tutorial group number on your solution. Late submis-
sion WILL NOT be accepted.

Questions 1 to 5 of this assignment are essentially computational, and are exercises for you to
know how to compute various quantities using vectors. Questions 6 and 7 are slightly more
conceptual.

1. Find the shortest distance between the (entire) line L1 passing through the points A(1, 1, 1)
and B(2, 1, 0) and the (entire) line L2 passing through the points C(3, 0, −1) and D(1, 5, −2).

2. Find two unit vectors orthogonal to both j − k and i + j.

3. Find the area of the parallelogram with vertices P (1, 0, 2), Q(3, 3, 3), R(7, 5, 8) and S(5, 2, 7).

4. Find a nonzero vector orthogonal to the plane passing through the points P (−1, 3, 1),
Q(0, 5, 2) and R(4, 3, −1) and find the area of the triangle P QR.

5. Find the volume of the parallelepiped determined by the vectors a = i + j − k, b = i − j + k

and c = −i + j + k.
6. If the points P , Q, R, not all lying on the same straight line, have position vectors a, b, c
respectively, show that
(a × b) + (b × c) + (c × a)
is a vector perpendicular to the plane containing P , Q, R.

7. Show that the vectors a = 2i + 4j − 8k, b = 3i − j + 3k and c = −5i + 11j − 25k are
coplanar.