Referred to the origin , the points and are such that and with not parallel to . The point is on produced with and the position vector of point is .
- (a)
Find the position vector of the point of intersection of lines and , giving your answer in terms of .
- (b)
It is given that and the point does not lie on the plane . Find the foot of the perpendicular from to the plane .
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Worked solution
3(a)
1. Find the position vector of $P$.
Since is on produced with , we know that .
2. Express the position vector of a general point on the line $PQ$.
The line passes through and . Let be the point of intersection. Since lies on , its position vector can be written using a scalar parameter :
3. Set up an equation using the condition that the intersection point lies on $OB$.
Since the point also lies on the line , its position vector must be a scalar multiple of . Let for some scalar .
Equating the two expressions for :
4. Solve for the parameters to find the point of intersection.
Since vectors and are non-zero and not parallel, their coefficients on both sides of the equation must be equal.
Comparing the coefficients of :
Comparing the coefficients of :
Therefore, the position vector of the point of intersection is .
3(b)
1. Identify the normal vector and formulate the equation of plane $OAB$.
The normal to the plane , , is parallel to the cross product of two non-parallel vectors on the plane.
Since the plane contains the origin , the scalar product equation of the plane is:
2. Formulate the vector equation of the line passing through $C$ and perpendicular to the plane $OAB$.
The perpendicular line passes through and has a direction vector parallel to the normal .
3. Find the value of the parameter $\lambda$ at the point of intersection between the line and the plane.
At the foot of the perpendicular , the line intersects the plane. We substitute the line equation into the plane equation:
4. Calculate the coordinates of the foot of the perpendicular $F$.
Substitute back into the equation of line to find the position vector of :
The coordinates of the foot of the perpendicular are .
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