N2018 P1 Q6

N2018 P1 Q6

7 marks
Past Year National Exams
Free

Vectors \(\mathbf{a}\), \(\mathbf{b}\) and \(\mathbf{c}\) are such that \(\mathbf{a}\ne \mathbf{0}\) and \(\mathbf{a}\times 3\mathbf{b}=2\mathbf{a}\times \mathbf{c}\).

  1. Show that \(3\mathbf{b}-2\mathbf{c}=\lambda \mathbf{a}\), where \(\lambda \) is a constant.[2]
  2. It is now given that \(\mathbf{a}\) and \(\mathbf{c}\) are unit vectors, that the modulus of \(\mathbf{b}\) is \(4\) and that the angle between \(\mathbf{b}\) and \(\mathbf{c}\) is \(60{}^\circ \). Using a suitable scalar product, find exactly the two possible values of \(\lambda \).[5]

Video Solution:

Default solution

  1. List item image
  2. List item image
Answer:(ii) \(\lambda =\pm 2\sqrt{31}\)

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