Mathematical Methods in Physics

Weekly Problems 1. Solution

1.1
a) Use the anticommutativity and distributivity and compute
a (b c) = (14, 16, 10) .

1 mark

b) Since a b = |a||b| cos , |a b| = |a||b| sin and sin2 + cos2 = 1 it suces to

compute
1 mark
|a|2 |b|2 = 364 .
c) Since the vector product is not associative, the result is not vanishing.
(a b) c = (18, 12, 6),

a (b c) = (8, 16, 8)

(a b) c a (b c) = (10, 28, 2) .

1 mark

d) Expand the vector product. You should get

b (a c 2a b + b c 2b b) = b (a c) = 36 .

1 mark

1.2
a) When the ball bounces o the cushion along the x axis the x-component of its velocity is
conserved, while the y-component is reversed. When the ball bounces o a cushion along
the y-axis the y-component of the velocity vector is conserved but the x-component is
reversed. So you should get:
a (a, 1) ,

b (a, 1) ,

c (a, 1) ,

d (a, 1) .

1 mark

b) The point (1, b) is on the line b such that the following relation holds
(1, b) = (a, 0) + t(a, 1).
By eliminating t from the two resulting equations you get b = (1 a)/a. A similar
calculation can be performed for the lines c and d, that is
(c, 2) = (1, b) + t (a, 1)
gives c = 1 2a + ab and
(0, 0) = (c, 2) + t (a, 1)
gives c = 2a. Putting everything together you should get a = 2/5.

2 marks

1.4
One can use any two vectors out of v1 = PQ = (2, 6, 7) , v2 = PR = (3, 2, 6) and
v3 = QR = (5, 4, 1) to construct a vector n normal to the plane using the vector
product
n = v1 v2 = 11(2, 3, 2)
1 mark
The component of v parallel to n, and therefore perpendicular to the surface, is given by
the orthogonal projection of v onto n:
(
)
nv n
7
v =
=
(2, 3, 2)
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|n| |n|
17
Hence:
v = v v =

1
(3, 30, 48)
17

1 mark