All in One Place

Everything you need for JC, LC, and college level maths and science classes.

Learn with Ease

We’ve mastered the national curriculum so that you can revise with confidence.

Instant Help

24/7 access to the best tips, walkthroughs, and practice exercises available.

0/3
?
Intros
Lessons
  1. Dot Product Overview:
  2. Dot Product and its Special Property
    • Multiplying the corresponding entries, and adding
    • Dot product = 0 \to vectors are perpendicular
  3. Application to Dot Product
    • What is scalar projection? Vector projection
    • Formula for scalar projection: v=abb|v| = \frac{a \cdot b}{|b|}
    • Formula for vector projection v=abbbbv = \frac{a \cdot b}{b \cdot b}b
  4. More Properties of Dot Product
    • Order
    • Length
    • Distribution
    • Scalar
0/6
?
Examples
Lessons
  1. Using the Dot Product
    Find the dot product of u=<1,2,7> u = <-1, -2 , 7> and v=<2,1,2>v = <-2,1,-2> .
    1. Find the dot product of u=<1,5,3>u= <1, -5, -3> and v=<1,1,2>v= <-1, 1, 2>.
      1. Using the Dot Product Property
        Suppose two vectors u=<a,4,3> u = < a, 4, -3> and v=<1,2,3> v=<1, 2, 3> are perpendicular. Find aa.
        1. Finding Scalar and Vector Projections
          Find the scalar and vector projection of BA\vec{BA} onto CA\vec{CA} if A=(1,0,2)A=(1, 0, 2), B=(3,2,1)B=(3, -2, 1) and C=(4,1,5)C=(-4, 1, 5).
          1. Verifying Properties of Dot Product
            Use the two vectors u=<3,1,5>u=<3, 1, 5> and v=<1,4,6>v=<1,4,-6> to show that:

            uu=u2u \cdot u = |u|^2

            1. Use the 3 vectors u=<3,1,5>u=<3, 1, 5>, v=<1,4,6>v=<1,4,-6>, and w=<1,0,3>w=<1, 0, 3> to show that:

              u(v+w)=uv+uwu \cdot (v+w)=u \cdot v+ u \cdot w

              Topic Notes
              ?
              Notes:

              Dot Product
              Let u=<a,b,c>u=<a,b,c> and v=<d,e,f>v=<d,e,f>. Then the dot product of these two vectors will be:

              uv=ad+be+dfu \cdot v = ad + be + df

              Dot Product Property
              If the dot product of two vectors uu and vv gives 0, then the vectors are perpendicular. In other words,

              uv=0u \cdot v=0 \to perpendicular vectors

              Scalar and Vector Projection
              Suppose we have two vectors aa and bb. Suppose they create an angle θ\theta such that we get the following picture:
              projection

              v=abb |v| = \frac{a \cdot b } {|b|}

              To find the vector projection aa onto bb (which is v), we use the formula:

              v=abbbb v = \frac{a \cdot b}{b \cdot b}b

              Additional Dot Product Properties
              Let u,v,wu, v, w be vectors and cc be a scalar. Then the properties of dot products are:
              1. uu=u2u \cdot u = |u|^2
              2. uv=vuu \cdot v = v \cdot u
              3. u(v+w)=uv+uwu \cdot (v+w) = u \cdot v + u \cdot w
              4. (cu)v=u(cv)=c(uv) (cu) \cdot v = u \cdot (cv) = c(u \cdot v)