is there a quick way to find the equation of the plane on which a line (whose equation is given) and a point (whose coordinates are given) lie? i have a feeling my current method is unnecessarily longwinded.
Planck's method is correct, but it's hard to extract a cartesian equation from this.
The easiest method (in my opinion) to find a Cartesian equation for a plane is as follows:
Let the line be described by
=t \vec{v} + \vec{r}_0)
, and the point be

, then we can calculate the normal to the plane by
)
.
The cartesian equation of the plane is therefore

, where
)
.
Note that we don't have to worry about using

, since

would appear on both sides and cancel out. Also, the choice of

is arbitrary. This is because any point on the plane

and any other point on the plane

would satisfy the relationship
=0)
, thus we can use

or any other point on the plane.
The same idea applies if you have three points: calculate a normal from any two coplanar vectors ==> job done.