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The topic of three dimensional geometry is quite important and a bit complicated
as compared to its counterpart two dimensional geometry. One of the ways of
describing a 3D object is by approximating or assuming its shape as a mesh of
triangles. A triangle is generally defined by three vertices wherein the positions
of the vertices are described by the coordinates x, y and z.
The major heads that are included in 3D coordinate geometry are the direction
ratios and direction cosines of a line segment.
The direction cosines are the cosines of the angles between a line and the
coordinate axis. If we have a vector (a, b, c) in three dimensional space, then the
direction cosines of the vector are defined as
l = a/ a2
m = b/ a2
n = c/ a2
While the direction cosines of a line segment are always unique, the
direction ratios are never unique and in fact they can be infinite in number.
If the direction cosines of a line are l, m and n then they satisfy the
relation l2 + m2 + n2 = 1.
If the direction cosines of a line segment AB are (l, m, n) then those of line
BA will be (-l, -m, -n).
Let us assume that is the angle between the two lines say AB and AC whose
direction cosines are l1, m1 and n1 and l2, m2 and n2 then
Also if the direction ratios of two lines a1, b1 and c1 and a2, b2 and c2 then the
angle between two lines is given by
cos = (a1a2 + b1b2 + c1c2)/ ( a12 + b12 + c12) . (a22 + b22 + c22)
When the two lines are perpendicular, the angle between the lines is 90 which
gives the condition of perpendicularity as
Similarly, when the two lines are parallel, the angle between them i.e. = 0.