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Lecture 11

Straight lines and planes in the 3-dimensional space

Let (V =R; <; >) be the Euclidean 3-dimensional space. As we know
V =R ' R3 =R and, if we choose the standard basis fe1 ; e2 ; e3 g; where e1 =
(1; 0; 0), e2 = (0; 1; 0); e3 = (0; 0; 1); we can de…ne the scalar product
X
3 X
3 X
3
< v; u >:= vi ui for v = vi ei and u = ui ei :
i=1 i=1 i=1

We also know that, according to the a¢ ne induced structure, for any

P
3
vector v = vi ei we can de…ne a point (v1 ; v2 ; v3 ) 2 R3 and we can even
i=1
draw the space R3 after considering the straight lines determined by the
vectors e1 ; e2 ; e3 (they are called versors): We will call this straight lines axis
of coordinates. This axis are each two orthogonal because
< e1 ; e2 >= 0; < e3 ; e2 >= 0; < e1 ; e3 >= 0

The scalar product allows to measure distances between the points of the
space, in particular distances between points which belong to the axes.
In theoretic mechanics the versors of the axis of the 3-dimensional space
are denoted by ~i; ~j; ~k so any vector can be written in the form
v = a~i + b~j + c~k;
which corresponds to our notation v = ae1 + be2 + ce3 :
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According to the above …gure we denote:

p
kvk = a2 + b 2 + c 2 ; \
= (v; e1 ); \
= (v; e2 ); \
= (v; e3 ):

We have that:

a b c
cos =p ; cos =p ; cos =p :
a2 + b2 + c 2 a2 + b2 + c 2 a2 + b2 + c 2

This leads to

cos2 + cos2 + cos2 =1

which correspond to the Pitagora’s theorem in the parallelepiped having as

a diagonal the v vector.
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If we look at the situation described in the above …gure, we see that

!
v + AB = !
u , and equivalent,
!
AB = !
u !
v = (a0 a; b0 b; c0 c):
! !
This means that in fact we may think at the vector AB as OC:
! !
In this way the representation of A0 B 0 vector is OC also, the explanation
being related to the fact that OA0 B 0 C is a parallelogram. Therefore, the
vectors are, in fact, the equivalence classes of the relation of equivalence
de…ned by

def
(A; B) (O; C) , AB is parallel or equal to OC.

Observe that the order of the points is important, that is the parallelogram
is in the order OABC.

The parallelism in Euclidean spaces is related to a¢ ne parallelism which

appears in the a¢ ne space induced by the vector space structure.
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Looking to the above …gure it is easy to obtain the equation of a straight

line in the Euclidean 2-dimensional plane. We have the correspondences

vector-point expressed by

a 7! (x0 ; y0 ); v 7! ( ; ):

Then
( ; ) + (x0 ; y0 ) = (x; y);
i.e.
( + x0 ; + y0 ) = (x; y)
and so the equation of the straight line is
x x0 y y0
= :

In fact we obtained the same equation we know from the high school:

Ax + By + C = 0;

or, equivalent,
y = mx + n;
where m = A
= tg ; with [
:= d; Ox:
B
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According to this, two straight lines d : Ax + By + C = 0 and d0 :

A0 x + B 0 y + C 0 = 0 are parallel (d k d0 ) if

A B C
0
= 0 6= 0 :
A B C
If we consider the other form, the straight lines y = mx + n and y 0 = m0 x + n0
are parallel if
m = m0 and n 6= n0 :

The previous considerations may be easily extended to the 3-dimensional

Euclidean space; since

( ; ; ) + (x0 ; y0 ; z0 ) = (x; y; z)

we get that the equation of a straight line in space is

x x0 y y0 z z0
= = :
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The equation of a plane can be obtained taking into consideration the

…gure above. We have u ? A0 M; A0 M : It follows OC ? ; therefore
0
OC ? A0 M: But OM represents the class of equivalence for A0 M; therefore
OM 0 ? OC , i.e.
< OM 0 ; OC >= 0:
There results
a(x x0 ) + b(y y0 ) + c(z z0 ) = 0;
so
ax + cy + cz + d = 0
is the general equation of a plane in space, where d = ax0 by0 cz0 :

I. In space, the intersection between a line d having the equation

x x0 y y0 z z0
(d) : = =
m n p
and a plane with equation

( ): ax + by + cz + d = 0

we have three possible situations:

I.1. The line d is parallel with the plane ; i.e. djj : Consequently,

< (a; b; c); (m; n; p) >= 0;

i.e. am + bn + cp = 0:

I.2. The line d is not parallel with the plane ; that is d \ 6= ;; i.e.
d , . In this case, we have am + bn + cp 6= 0: The intersection point can be
obtained in the following way: from
x x0 y y0 z z0
= = =t
m n p
it results the system 8
< x = mt + x0
y = nt + y0 ;
:
z = pt + z0
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since ax + by + cz + d = 0, it follows that

a(mt + x0 ) + b(nt + y0 ) + c(pt + z0 ) + d = 0;

and hence
ax0 by0 cz0 d
t= :
am + bn + cp
From the previous system one can now obtain the coordinates x; y; z of the
intersection point.
I.3. The line d is included in the plane ; that is d : In this case we
have:

am + bn + cp = 0
:
ax0 + by0 + cz0 + d = 0

0
II. Let’s analyze now the intersection of two planes and in the space:
: ax + by + cz + d = 0
0 :
: a0 x + b0 y + c0 z + d0 = 0
0
II.1. If the planes and are parallel ( jj 0 ), then

(a; b; c) = k(a0 ; b0 ; c0 ) and d 6 =kd0 :

0 0
II.2. If the planes and coincide ( = ), then

(a; b; c) = k(a0 ; b0 ; c0 ) and d = kd0 :

0 0
II.3. If the plane intersects the plane ; i.e. \ 6= ;; it follows that
jaa0 + bb0 + cc0 j
p p 6= 1
a2 + b2 + c2 a02 + b02 + c02

III. We will analyze now the intersection of two lines in space: d1 having
the equation
x x0 y y0 z z0
d1 : = = ;
m0 n0 p0
and d2 with equation
x x1 y y1 z z1
d2 : = = :
m1 n1 p1
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III.1. If d1 \ d2 6= ;; we have the two possible subcases:

III.1.1. d1 jj d2 : Then, there exists k 6= 0 such that
m0 n0 p0
= = =k
m1 n1 p1

or, equivalent,
(m0 ; n0 ; p0 ) = k(m1 ; n1 ; p1 ):
III.1.2. d1 , d2 : In this case, v1 v0 6= 0; i.e.
! ! !
i j k
m1 n1 p1 = (n1 p0 n 0 p 1 ; m 1 p 0 + m 0 p 1 ; m1 n 0 m0 n1 ) 6= 0:
m0 n0 p0

Consequently, at least one of the components is di¤erent from zero, i.e.

n1 p0 n0 p1 6= 0; or m1 p0 + m0 p1 6= 0; or m1 n0 m0 n1 6= 0: Let’s analyze
the case n1 p0 n0 p1 6= 0; we have that
x x0 y y0 z z0
m0
= n0
= p0
= t0
x x1 y y1 z z1 ;
m1
= n1
= p1
= t1

which implies that

(y y0 )p0 = n0 (z z0 )
:
(y y1 )p1 = n1 (z z1 )
The previous system is equivalent with

p0 y n0 z = p0 y0 n0 z0 j p1
p1 y n1 z = p1 y1 n1 z1 j ( p0 )
One can now obtain that z(n1 p0 n0 p1 ) = p1 p0 y0 p1 n0 z0 p0 p1 y1 + p0 n1 z1 :
Since d1 , d2 ; it’s possible to have d1 \ d2 6= ; if n1 p0 n0 p1 6= 0 and
m1 p0 + m0 p1 = m1 n0 m0 n1 = 0: If all are di¤erent from zero, we have
that d1 \ d2 6= ; because one can determine x; y; z resolving the system..

The common perpendicular of two noncoplanar lines