GRADE 12

CHAPTER 11
Three-Dimensional Geometry

 Direction cosines (d.c.’s) of a line:

D.c.’s of a line are the cosines of angles made by the line with the positive
direction of the coordinate axes.
If l, m, and n are the d.c.’s of a line, then l2 + m2 + n2 = 1
D.c.’s of a line joining two points P (x1, y1, z1) and Q (x2, y2, z2) are
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1
, , , where PQ = ( x2 x1 )2 ( y2 y1 )2 ( z2 z1 )2
PQ PQ PQ

 Direction ratios (d.r.’s) of a line:

D.r.’s of a line are the numbers which are proportional to the d.c.’s of the
line.
D.r.’s of a line joining two points P (x1, y1, z1) and Q (x2, y2, z2) are given by
x1 –x2, y1 – y2, z1 – z2 or x2 – x1, y2 – y1, z2 – z1.

 If a, b, and c are the d.r.’s of a line and l, m, and n are its d.c.’s, then
l m n
a b c
a b c
l ,m , and n
a 2 b2 c2 a 2 b2 c2 a 2 b2 c2

 Equation of a line through a given point and parallel to a given

vector:
Vector form: Equation of a line that passes through the given point whose
 
position vector is a and which is parallel to a given vector b is
  
r a b , where is a constant.
Cartesian form:
o Equation of a line that passes through a point (x1, y1, z1) having d.r.’s as
x x1 y y1 z z1
a, b, c is given by
a b c
o Equation of a line that passes through a point (x1, y1, z1) having d.c.’s as
x x1 y y1 z z1
l, m, n is given by
l m n

 Equation of a line passing through two given points:

Vector form: Equation of a line passing through two points whose position
     
vectors are a and b is given by r a (b a ) , where R
 Cartesian form: Equation of a line that passes through two given points
(x1, y1, z1) and (x2, y2, z2) is given by,
x x1 y y1 z z1
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1

 Two lines in space are said to be skew lines, if they are neither parallel nor
intersecting. They lie in different planes.

 Angle between two skew lines is the angle between two intersecting lines drawn
from any point (preferably from the origin) parallel to each of the skew lines.

 Angle between two Non-skew lines:

Cartesian form:
o If l1, m1, n1, and l2, m2, n2 are the d.c.’s of two lines and is the acute
angle between them, then cos l1l2 m1m2 n1n2
o If a1, b1, c1 and a2, b2, c2 are the d.r.’s of two lines and is the acute
a1a2 b1b2 c1c2
angle between them, then cos
2
b12 c12 . a22 b22 c22
a 1
  
Vector form: If is the acute angle between the lines r a1 b1 and
 
   b1 b2
r a2 b1 , then cos  
b1 b2

 Two lines with d.r.’s a1, b1, c1 and a2, b2, c2 are
perpendicular, if a1a2 b1b2 c1c2 0
a1 b1 c1
parallel, if
a2 b2 c2

 Shortest Distance between two skew lines: The shortest distance is the
line segment perpendicular to both the lines.
  
Vector form: Distance between two skew lines r a1 b1 and
  
r a2 b2 is given by,
   
(b1 b2 ) (a2 a1 )
d  
b1 b2
Cartesian form: The shortest distance between two lines
x x1 y y1 z z1 x x2 y y2 z z2
and is given by,
a1 b1 c1 a2 b2 c2
 x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1
a1 b1 c1
a2 b2 c2
d
(b1c2 b2 c1 ) 2 (c1a2 c2 a1 ) 2 (a1b2 a2b1 ) 2

     
 The shortest distance between two parallel lines r a1 b and r a2 b is
given by,
  
b (a2 a1 )
d 
b

 Equation of a plane in normal form:

Vector form: Equation of a plane which is at a distance of d from the
origin, and the unit vector n̂ normal to the plane through the origin is
 
r .nˆ d , where r is the position vector of a point in the plane
Cartesian form: Equation of a plane which is at a distance d from the origin
and the d.c.’s of the normal to the plane as l, m, n is lx + my + nz = d

 Equation of a plane perpendicular to a given vector and passing

through a given point:
Vector form: Equation of a plane through a point whose position vector
     
is a and perpendicular to the vector N is (r a ).N = 0 , where r is the
position vector of a point in the plane
Cartesian form: Equation of plane passing through the point (x1, y1, z1) and
perpendicular to a given line whose d.r.’s are A, B, C is
A(x x1 ) B( y y1 ) C( z z1 ) 0

 Equation of a plane passing through three non-collinear points:

Cartesian form: Equation of a plane passing through three non-collinear
points (x1, y1, z1), (x2, y2, z2), and (x3, y3, z3) is
x x1 y y1 z z1
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1 0
x3 x1 y3 y1 z3 z1
Vector form: Equation of a plane that contains three non-collinear points
        
having position vectors a , b , and c is (r a ) (b a ) (c a ) 0 , where

r is the position vector of a point in the plane
 Intercept form of the equation of a plane: Equation of a plane having x, y,
and z intercepts as a, b, and c respectively i.e., the equation of the plane that cuts
the coordinate axes at (a, 0, 0), (0, b, 0), and (0, 0, c) is given by,
x y z
1
a b c

 Planes passing through the intersection of two planes:

Vector form: Equation of the plane passing through intersection of two
 
planes r .n1 d1 and r .n2 d2 is given by,
  
r .(n1 n2 ) d1 d2 , where is a non-zero constant
Cartesian form: Equation of a plane passing through the intersection of
two planes A1 x B1 y C1 z D1 0 and A2 x B2 y C2 z D2 0 is given
by,
(A1 x B1 y C1 z D1 ) (A2 x B2 y C2 z D2 ) 0 , where is a non-
zero constant

 Co-planarity of two lines

     
Vector form: Two lines r a1 b1 and r a2 b2 are co-planar, if
   
(a2 a1 ) (b1 b2 ) 0
x x1 y y1 z z1
Cartesian form: Two lines and
a1 b1 c1
x x2 y y2 z z2
are co-planar, if
a2 b2 c2
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1
a1 b1 c1 0
a2 b2 c2

 Angle between two planes: The angle between two planes is defined as the
angle between their normals.
 
Vector form: If is the angle between the two planes r n1 d1 and
 
  n1 n2
r n2 d 2 , then cos  
n1 n2
 
Note that if two planes are perpendicular to each other, then n1.n2 0 ; and if
 
they are parallel to each other, then n1 is parallel to n2 .
Cartesian form: If is the angle between the two planes
A1 x B1 y C1 z D1 0 and A2 x B2 y C2 z D2 0 , then
A1A 2 B1B2 C1C2
cos
A12 B12 C12 A 22 B22 C22
 Note that if two planes are perpendicular to each other, then
A1A2 B1B2 C1C2 0 ; and if they are parallel to each other,
A1 B1 C1
then
A2 B2 C2

 Distance of a point from a plane:


Vector form: The distance of a point, whose position vector is a , from the
 
plane r nˆ d is d a nˆ .
Note:
  
o If the equation of the plane is in the form of r N d , where N is the
 
a N d
normal to the plane, then the perpendicular distance is  .
N
  d
o Length of the perpendicular from origin to the plane r N d is  .
N
Cartesian form: The distance from a point (x1, y1,z1) to the plane Ax + By
Ax1 By1 Cz1 D
+ Cz + D = 0 is .
A 2 B2 C 2

 Angle between a line and a plane: The angle between a

    
line r a b and the plane r n d is the complement of the angle between
 
1 b n
the line and the normal to the plane and is given by sin  
b n

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