MATH 1030 – Application Assignment 2

Geometry and Vectors

Due: Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 11:59pm Atlantic time (submit through Brightspace)
You must show your work for full marks.

The goal of this assignment is to use our knowledge of vectors to derive interesting geometrical facts. To
prove these we will use the definition of vector addition and scalar multiplication, the length of a vector, the
dot product, and the cross product.

1. Midpoints of a quadrilateral. Show that the midpoints of the four sides of any quadrilateral are
the vertices of a parallelogram.
Label the points of the quadrilateral A, B, C, D and the midpoints of each side M, N, P, Q.

Q
C
D
M P
A
N B

−−→ −−→
(a) Using the fact that M, N, P, Q are midpoints, write each of M N and QP as a linear combination
of vectors that represent the sides of the quadrilateral.
−−→ −−→
(b) Simplify both vectors to show M N = QP . Why is this sufficient to show that M, N, P, Q form
a parallelogram? (Hint: This is mentioned in Lesson 6)

2. The parallelogram identity. In this problem, you will prove the parallelogram identity c2 + d2 =
2a2 + 2b2 , which gives a relationship between the length of the sides of a parallelogram and the lengths
of its diagonals.
a
c b
d

b a

Let ⃗u and ⃗v be vectors corresponding to the sides a and b of the parallelogram, respectively. Note
that ⃗u and ⃗v are vector quantities and a, b, c, d are scalars.

(a) Find formulas for a and b in terms of ⃗u and ⃗v .

(b) Find formulas for c and d in terms of ⃗u and ⃗v .
(c) Simplify ∥⃗u + ⃗v ∥2 + ∥⃗u − ⃗v ∥2 , using the identity ∥w∥ ⃗ ·w
⃗ 2=w ⃗ and other properties of the dot
product.
(d) Use your above calculations to show that c2 + d2 = 2a2 + 2b2 .