Find the angle between the lines whose Direction cosines are given by the equation 3 L + m + 5 n =0 and 6mn- 2nl+5l=0
in Geometry Answers by

Your answer

Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
To avoid this verification in future, please log in or register.

1 Answer

Assuming that each line shares common direction cosines defined by the equations, and adding to the given equations L²+M²+N²=1 (I’ve used uppercase versions of the direction cosines to avoid ambiguities), we have three equations with three unknowns, which is sufficient to find the individual direction cosines. Without this assumption there would be insufficient information to define the line vectors.

So we have:

(1) 3L+M+5N=0⇒M=-(3L+5N);

(2) 6MN-2NL+5L=0⇒-6(3L+5N)N-2NL+5L=0, -20NL-30N²+5L=0, L(1-4N)=6N², L=6N²/(1-4N)⇒M=-(18N²/(1-4N)+5N)=N(2N-5)/(1-4N);

(3) L²+M²+N²=1⇒

36N⁴/(1-4N)²+(18N²/(1-4N)+5N)²+N²=1,

36N⁴+N²(2N-5)²+N²(1-4N)²=(1-4N)²,

36N⁴+4N⁴-20N³+25N²+N²-8N³+16N⁴=1-8N+16N²,

56N⁴-28N³+10N²+8N-1=0.

This quartic can be solved using Newton’s Method and approximations of the solution as initial values: -0.35 and 0.15 (from a graph and using the Intermediate Value Theorem).

N₁=-0.3754, N₂=0.1130,

L₁=0.1397, L₂=0.3380,

M₁=-0.9837, M₂=0.8630 (approx figures).

Thus there are two solutions (only), presumably one for each line.

(L₁,M₁,N₁) defines the unit vector for one line and (L₂,M₂,N₂) defines the unit vector for the other line. The dot product of these gives the cosine of the angle θ between them, so θ=arccos(L₁L₂+M₁M₂+N₁N₂)=arccos(-0.8442)=147.58° or 2.5758 radians.

by Top Rated User (1.2m points)

Related questions

1 answer
0 answers
asked Jun 23, 2013 in Geometry Answers by anonymous | 653 views
Welcome to MathHomeworkAnswers.org, where students, teachers and math enthusiasts can ask and answer any math question. Get help and answers to any math problem including algebra, trigonometry, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, fractions, solving expression, simplifying expressions and more. Get answers to math questions. Help is always 100% free!
87,516 questions
100,272 answers
2,420 comments
730,088 users