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VCE Specialist 3/4 Question Thread!

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Planck's constant:
Easier to see why the hypotenuse = a - b, if you imagine the vertex corresponding to the right angle as the origin, O.
Therefore, the other two vertices will be represented by their position vectors,

OA = a
OB = b

And the hypotenuse, AB becomes,

BO + OA =
(-OB) + OA =
-b + a =
a - b

 

Bhootnike:
Thanks dc302,  making sense :)

Thanks to you too argonaut! Just checking, if you're going by the same diagram as dc302,  you've said ab = a-b,  but isn't that ba?  Ab would be - a + b wouldn't it?

Which leads me to asking,  the hypotenuse could be a-b or b-a yes?

TrueTears:

--- Quote from: Bhootnike on December 07, 2011, 12:16:33 am ---Which leads me to asking,  the hypotenuse could be a-b or b-a yes?

--- End quote ---
yeh doesnt matter, but then the vector expression for the vector starting at the right angle vertex to the midpoint would also change, the final result is the same

Planck's constant:

--- Quote from: Bhootnike on December 07, 2011, 12:16:33 am ---Which leads me to asking,  the hypotenuse could be a-b or b-a yes?

--- End quote ---


Indeed it can be either.
But for the purposes of the (correct) solution posted by kamil, in order to find the relevant magnitudes, you end up forming the dot product,

(a - b) . (a - b)

which is equivalent to

(b - a) . (b - a)

Bhootnike:
Alright then!  Thanks again :)  and woops forgot to thank you before TT! 

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