Section 5.2
The Dot Product
Goals:
1 Calculate the dot product of two vectors.
2 Determine the geometric relationship between two vectors based on their dot product.
3 Calculate vector and scalar projections of one vector onto another.
The arithmetic of vectors appears to have room for expansion. While we can add and subtract
vectors, we only defined how to multiply them by scalars, not by other vectors. There are in fact
products of two vectors. The simplest and most useful is the dot product. The dot product takes two
n-vectors and outputs a single number. Despite this apparent loss of information, the dot product is
the key tool in computing the angle between vectors, the work done by a force, or the illumination in a
digital scene.
Question 5.2.1
What Is the Dot Product?
Definition
The dot product of two vectors is a number.
For two dimensional vectors v = v
1
, v
2
and u = u
1
, u
2
we define
v ·u = v
1
u
1
+ v
2
u
2
For three dimensional vectors v = v
1
, v
2
, v
3
and u = u
1
, u
2
, u
3
we define
v ·u = v
1
u
1
+ v
2
u
2
+ v
3
u
3
This pattern can be extended to any dimension.
Example 5.2.2
Computing a Dot Product
a
Calculate 2, 3, 1· 4, 1, 5
b
Calculate (2
i + 4
k) · (
i + 2
j
k)
321
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