You CAN Ace Calculus

 parametrics basics of vectors dot product cross product vector functions

### 17Calculus Subjects Listed Alphabetically

Single Variable Calculus

 Absolute Convergence Alternating Series Arc Length Area Under Curves Chain Rule Concavity Conics Conics in Polar Form Conditional Convergence Continuity & Discontinuities Convolution, Laplace Transforms Cosine/Sine Integration Critical Points Cylinder-Shell Method - Volume Integrals Definite Integrals Derivatives Differentials Direct Comparison Test Divergence (nth-Term) Test
 Ellipses (Rectangular Conics) Epsilon-Delta Limit Definition Exponential Derivatives Exponential Growth/Decay Finite Limits First Derivative First Derivative Test Formal Limit Definition Fourier Series Geometric Series Graphing Higher Order Derivatives Hyperbolas (Rectangular Conics) Hyperbolic Derivatives
 Implicit Differentiation Improper Integrals Indeterminate Forms Infinite Limits Infinite Series Infinite Series Table Infinite Series Study Techniques Infinite Series, Choosing a Test Infinite Series Exam Preparation Infinite Series Exam A Inflection Points Initial Value Problems, Laplace Transforms Integral Test Integrals Integration by Partial Fractions Integration By Parts Integration By Substitution Intermediate Value Theorem Interval of Convergence Inverse Function Derivatives Inverse Hyperbolic Derivatives Inverse Trig Derivatives
 Laplace Transforms L'Hôpital's Rule Limit Comparison Test Limits Linear Motion Logarithm Derivatives Logarithmic Differentiation Moments, Center of Mass Mean Value Theorem Normal Lines One-Sided Limits Optimization
 p-Series Parabolas (Rectangular Conics) Parabolas (Polar Conics) Parametric Equations Parametric Curves Parametric Surfaces Pinching Theorem Polar Coordinates Plane Regions, Describing Power Rule Power Series Product Rule
 Quotient Rule Radius of Convergence Ratio Test Related Rates Related Rates Areas Related Rates Distances Related Rates Volumes Remainder & Error Bounds Root Test Secant/Tangent Integration Second Derivative Second Derivative Test Shifting Theorems Sine/Cosine Integration Slope and Tangent Lines Square Wave Surface Area
 Tangent/Secant Integration Taylor/Maclaurin Series Telescoping Series Trig Derivatives Trig Integration Trig Limits Trig Substitution Unit Step Function Unit Impulse Function Volume Integrals Washer-Disc Method - Volume Integrals Work

Multi-Variable Calculus

 Acceleration Vector Arc Length (Vector Functions) Arc Length Function Arc Length Parameter Conservative Vector Fields Cross Product Curl Curvature Cylindrical Coordinates
 Directional Derivatives Divergence (Vector Fields) Divergence Theorem Dot Product Double Integrals - Area & Volume Double Integrals - Polar Coordinates Double Integrals - Rectangular Gradients Green's Theorem
 Lagrange Multipliers Line Integrals Partial Derivatives Partial Integrals Path Integrals Potential Functions Principal Unit Normal Vector
 Spherical Coordinates Stokes' Theorem Surface Integrals Tangent Planes Triple Integrals - Cylindrical Triple Integrals - Rectangular Triple Integrals - Spherical
 Unit Tangent Vector Unit Vectors Vector Fields Vectors Vector Functions Vector Functions Equations

Differential Equations

 Boundary Value Problems Bernoulli Equation Cauchy-Euler Equation Chebyshev's Equation Chemical Concentration Classify Differential Equations Differential Equations Euler's Method Exact Equations Existence and Uniqueness Exponential Growth/Decay
 First Order, Linear Fluids, Mixing Fourier Series Inhomogeneous ODE's Integrating Factors, Exact Integrating Factors, Linear Laplace Transforms, Solve Initial Value Problems Linear, First Order Linear, Second Order Linear Systems
 Partial Differential Equations Polynomial Coefficients Population Dynamics Projectile Motion Reduction of Order Resonance
 Second Order, Linear Separation of Variables Slope Fields Stability Substitution Undetermined Coefficients Variation of Parameters Vibration Wronskian

### Search Practice Problems

Do you have a practice problem number but do not know on which page it is found? If so, enter the number below and click 'page' to go to the page on which it is found or click 'practice' to be taken to the practice problem.

17calculus > vectors > planes in 3-space

 Getting Started General and Standard Forms (Equations of Planes) Parametric Equations Vector Function Angle Between Two Planes Practice

Planes in 3-space are defined by one of the following

 1. one point and a normal vector 2. one point and 2 non-parallel vectors 3. three points that are not collinear

1. For calculations, it is most convenient to have one point and a normal vector. You can get these from the other two as follows.

2. If you have one point and 2 non-parallel vectors that lie in the plane, you can take the cross product of the two vectors to get a vector that is perpendicular to the original 2 vectors and perpendicular to the plane (a normal vector). See the practice problems below for examples.

3. If we have 3 points that are not collinear, we use these points to get two vectors. Then, by choosing one of the points (any of the three will work), we have the previous case of one point and 2 non-parallel vectors. We then use that procedure to get a normal vector. See the practice problems below for examples.

There may be times that you are given a point and a normal vector and you need either two vectors in the plane or three points in the plane. See the practice problems below for examples on how to extract that information.

You can determine an incredible amount of information about a plane and it's relationship to other planes just knowing a point and a normal vector. Examples include the angle between two planes including whether two planes are perpendicular or parallel, the distance between a point or line and a plane and other equations to define a plane. Most of these calculations are covered on this page. For now, we continue our discussion on how to define a plane.

Here is a good video clip explaining this idea again.

### PatrickJMT - planes in space [1min-42secs]

video by PatrickJMT

General and Standard Forms (Equations of Planes)

The (simplified) general form of the equation of a plane is $$Ax + By + Cz + D = 0$$. The cool thing about this form is that the vector formed from the coefficients of the $$x,y,z$$ components, i.e. $$\langle A,B,C \rangle$$ is a normal vector to the plane. To get one point on the plane, we just choose values for $$x$$ and $$y$$ and solve for $$z$$.

Alternatively, if we are given one point $$(x_0, y_0, z_0)$$ and a normal vector $$\langle A,B,C \rangle$$, we can derive the general form of the equation of the plane using the standard equation $$A(x-x_0)+B(y-y_0)+C(z-z_0)=0$$. By multiplying out, we can calculate d and end up with an equation in the form $$Ax + By + Cz + D = 0$$. In the simplified general form, the constants $$A,B,C,D$$ are all integers and have no common factor.

### Proof of the Standard Equation of a Plane

Theorem: Standard Equation of a Plane

Given a point $$P = ( x_0, y_0, z_0 )$$ in a plane and a normal vector $$\vec{n} = \langle A,B,C \rangle$$ to the plane, the standard equation of the plane is
$A(x-x_0) + B(y-y_0) + C(z-z_0) = 0$

Proof - - Let the point $$Q = (x,y,z)$$ be any point in the plane. We can form a vector in the plane $$\overrightarrow{PQ} = \langle x-x_0, y-y_0, z-z_0 \rangle$$.
Since the normal vector is orthogonal to vector $$\overrightarrow{PQ}$$ in the plane, we know that the dot product is zero. So we can write

$$\begin{array}{rcl} \vec{n} \cdot \overrightarrow{PQ} & = & 0 \\ \langle A,B,C \rangle \cdot \langle x-x_0, y-y_0, z-z_0 \rangle & = & 0 \\ A(x-x_0) + B(y-y_0) + C(z-z_0) & = & 0 ~~~ \text{[qed]} \end{array}$$

Parametric Equations

We can define a plane parametrically using two parameters. For this discussion, we will use the greek letters $$\lambda$$ and $$\mu$$.

Given one point $$\langle x_0, y_0, z_0 \rangle$$ and two non-parallel vectors in the plane, we can get a set of parametric equations similar to how we did above for lines. Let's call the two vectors $$\vec{a} = \langle a_x,a_y,a_z \rangle$$ and $$\vec{b} = \langle b_x,b_y,b_z \rangle$$.

Using the two parameters $$\lambda$$ and $$\mu$$, any point on the plane can be written as $$\langle x,y,z \rangle = \langle x_0, y_0, z_0 \rangle + \lambda \vec{a} + \mu \vec{b}$$. Equating each component, we get the three parametric equations

$$x = x_0 + \lambda a_x + \mu b_x$$;     $$y = y_0 + \lambda a_y + \mu b_y$$;     $$z = z_0 + \lambda a_z + \mu b_z$$

We can emphasize that these parametric equations are dependent on the parameters $$\lambda$$ and $$\mu$$ by writing them as

$$x(\lambda, \mu) = x_0 + \lambda a_x + \mu b_x$$;     $$y(\lambda, \mu) = y_0 + \lambda a_y + \mu b_y$$;     $$z(\lambda, \mu) = z_0 + \lambda a_z + \mu b_z$$

Vector Function

We can use the above parametric equations to build a vector function to define a plane.

$$\vec{W}(\lambda, \mu) = (x_0 + \lambda a_x + \mu b_x)\hat{i} + (y_0 + \lambda a_y + \mu b_y)\hat{j} + (z_0 + \lambda a_z + \mu b_z)\hat{k}$$

More simply, we can write $$\vec{W}(\lambda, \mu) = x(\lambda, \mu)\hat{i} + y(\lambda, \mu)\hat{j} + z(\lambda, \mu)\hat{k}$$

Calculating The Angle Between Two Planes

Using the idea of the dot product, we can calculate the angle between two planes. All we need are two normal vectors, one for each plane. The angle between the normal vectors is the same as the angle between the planes. So we can use the equation $\displaystyle{ \cos(\theta) = \frac{| \vec{n}_1 \cdot \vec{n}_2 |}{\| \vec{n}_1 \| ~ \| \vec{n}_2 \|} }$

### Practice

Conversion Between A-B-C Level (or 1-2-3) and New Numbered Practice Problems

Please note that with this new version of 17calculus, the practice problems have been relabeled but they are MOSTLY in the same order. So, Practice A01 (1) is probably the first basic practice problem, A02 (2) is probably the second basic practice problem, etc. Practice B01 is probably the first intermediate practice problem and so on.

GOT IT. THANKS!

Find the equation of the plane containing the point $$(2,3,-1)$$ with normal vector $$\vec{n} = \langle 3,5,-2 \rangle$$.

Problem Statement

Find the equation of the plane containing the point $$(2,3,-1)$$ with normal vector $$\vec{n} = \langle 3,5,-2 \rangle$$.

$$3x + 5y - 2z = 23$$

Problem Statement

Find the equation of the plane containing the point $$(2,3,-1)$$ with normal vector $$\vec{n} = \langle 3,5,-2 \rangle$$.

Solution

From the general equation of a plane, we have

 $$3(x - 2) + 5(y - 3) - 2(z + 1) = 0$$ $$3x - 6 + 5y - 15 -2z -2 = 0$$ $$3x + 5y - 2z = 23$$

$$3x + 5y - 2z = 23$$

Find the scalar equation of the plane with normal vector $$\vec{n} = \langle 2,-9,8 \rangle$$ through the point $$(-1,4,-2)$$.

Problem Statement

Find the scalar equation of the plane with normal vector $$\vec{n} = \langle 2,-9,8 \rangle$$ through the point $$(-1,4,-2)$$.

Solution

### 1255 solution video

video by Krista King Math

Find the equation of the plane that goes through the points $$(3,-1,2)$$, $$(8,2,4)$$ and $$(-1,-2,-3)$$.

Problem Statement

Find the equation of the plane that goes through the points $$(3,-1,2)$$, $$(8,2,4)$$ and $$(-1,-2,-3)$$.

Solution

### 1252 solution video

video by PatrickJMT

Find the equation of the plane that passes through the points $$P(1,0,2)$$, $$Q(-1,1,2)$$ and $$R(5,0,3)$$.

Problem Statement

Find the equation of the plane that passes through the points $$P(1,0,2)$$, $$Q(-1,1,2)$$ and $$R(5,0,3)$$.

Solution

### 1254 solution video

video by PatrickJMT

Find the scalar equation of the plane that goes through the points $$P(0,1,0)$$, $$Q(2,-1,4)$$, $$R(-3,5,-4)$$.

Problem Statement

Find the scalar equation of the plane that goes through the points $$P(0,1,0)$$, $$Q(2,-1,4)$$, $$R(-3,5,-4)$$.

Solution

### 1256 solution video

video by Krista King Math