VECTOR CALCULUS

J. Marsden and A. Tromba

SAMPLE TEST FOR CHAPTER 1

1. True or false. If false, explain why.

(a) If u and v are vectors in R2 , then u v is a scalar.
(b) If a and b are vectors in R3 , then a b is a vector in R3 .
(c) If u v = 0, then u and v are parallel.
(d) If a b = 0, then either a = 0 or b = 0.
(e) If A is a 2 3 matrix and B is a 3 2 matrix, then AB = BA.
2. Find an equation for the plane containing the points (1, 2, 3), (0, 0, 2), and (1, 0, 1).
3. Let u = (3, 0, 1) and v = (1, 2, 1). Let be the angle between u and v. Find cos .
4. Let A = (2, 1, 3), B = (3, 2, 4) and C = (1, 2, 2) be the vertices of a triangle. Let a be the vector
from A to B and let b be the vector from B to C.
(a) Find a and b.
(b) Find the distance from A to B.
(c) Find the area of the triangle ABC.
5. Find the volume of the parallelepiped spanned by the vectors (3, 2, 1), (0, 2, 1), and (1, 0, 1).
6. (a) Find an equation for the line passing through the points A = (1, 3, 2) and B = (0, 1, 1).
(b) Show that the line from part (a) is not orthogonal to the line l(s) = (1, 3, 2) + s(2, 0, 3).
7. Let

2
A=
4

0
1

3
1

1
and B = 2
1

(a) Compute AB.

1

0
1 .
0

SAMPLE TEST FOR CHAPTER 1

(b) Compute det(AB).
(c) Does det(BA) exist? If so, compute it. If not, explain why.

8. Consider the point p given in spherical coordinates by (, , ) = (2, 2

3 , 4 ).
(a) Write p in Cartesian coordinates.

(b) Write p in cylindrical coordinates.

9. Let u = (2, 1, 8) and v = (0, 2, 1).
(a) Find the orthogonal projection of u onto v.
(b) Find the length of the orthogonal projection of u onto v.
10. Let a = 3i + j + 3k and b = j + k.
(a) Find the length of a + b.
(b) Normalize a + b.