• Find the distance between a point and a line in or .

• Find the distance between two parallel planes in .

• Find the distance between a point and a plane.

Exercise Set 3.3

In Exercises 1–2, determine whether u and v are orthogonal vectors.

1. (a)
(b)
(c)
(d)

Answer:

(a) Orthogonal
(b) Not orthogonal
(c) Not orthogonal
(d) Not orthogonal

2. (a)
(b)
(c)
(d)

In Exercises 3–4, determine whether the vectors form an orthogonal set.

3. (a) ,
(b) ,
(c) , ,
(d) , ,

Answer:

(a) Not an orthogonal set

(b) Orthogonal set
(c) Orthogonal set
(d) Not an orthogonal set

4. (a) ,
(b) ,
(c) , ,
(d) , ,

5. Find a unit vector that is orthogonal to both and

Answer:
6. (a) Show that and are orthogonal vectors.
(b) Use the result in part (a) to find two vectors that are orthogonal to .
(c) Find two unit vectors that are orthogonal to .

7. Do the points , , and form the vertices of a right triangle? Explain your answer.

Answer:

Yes
8. Repeat Exercise 7 for the points , , and .
In Exercises 9–12, find a point-normal form of the equation of the plane passing through P and having n as a normal.

9.

Answer:

10.
11.

Answer:

12.
In Exercises 13–16, determine whether the given planes are parallel.

13. and

Answer:

Not parallel
14. and
15. and

Answer:

Parallel
16. and

In Exercises 17–18, determine whether the given planes are perpendicular.

17.

Answer:

Not perpendicular
18.

In Exercises 19–20, find .

19. (a)
(b)
 Answer:

(a)

(b)

20. (a)
(b)

In Exercises 21–28, find the vector component of u along a and the vector component of u orthogonal to a.

21.

Answer:

22.
23.

Answer:

24.
25.

Answer:

26.
27.

Answer:

28.
In Exercises 29–32, find the distance between the point and the line.

29.

Answer:

1
30.
31.

Answer:

32.
In Exercises 33–36, find the distance between the point and the plane.
33.

Answer:

34.
35.

Answer:

36.

In Exercises 37–40, find the distance between the given parallel planes.

37. and

Answer:

38. and
39. and

Answer:

0 (The planes coincide.)

40. and
41. Let i, j, and k be unit vectors along the positive x, y, and z axes of a rectangular coordinate system in 3-space. If
is a nonzero vector, then the angles α, β, and γ between v and the vectors i, j, and k, respectively, are called the direction
angles of v (Figure Ex-41), and the numbers , and are called the direction cosines of v.
(a) Show that .
(b) Find and .
(c) Show that .
(d) Show that .

Figure Ex-41

Answer:

(b)

42. Use the result in Exercise 41 to estimate, to the nearest degree, the angles that a diagonal of a box with dimensions
 makes with the edges of the box.
43. Show that if v is orthogonal to both and , then v is orthogonal to for all scalars and .
44. Let u and v be nonzero vectors in 2- or 3-space, and let and . Show that the vector bisects the
angle between u and v.
45. Prove part (a) of Theorem 3.3.4.
46. Is it possible to have

Explain your reasoning.

True-False Exercises

In parts (a)–(g) determine whether the statement is true or false, and justify your answer.

(a) The vectors and are orthogonal.

Answer:

True
(b) If u and v are orthogonal vectors, then for all nonzero scalars k and m, and are orthogonal vectors.

Answer:

True
(c) The orthogonal projection of u along a is perpendicular to the vector component of u orthogonal to a.

Answer:

True
(d) If a and b are orthogonal vectors, then for every nonzero vector u, we have

Answer:

True
(e) If a and u are nonzero vectors, then

Answer:

True
(f) If the relationship

holds for some nonzero vector a, then .

Answer:

False
(g) For all vectors u and v, it is true that

Answer:

False
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