Cross product - Wikiversity 11/30/17, 19)57

Cross product
The cross product, also known as the "vector product", is a vector associated with a pair of
vectors in 3-dimensional space.

Contents Mathematics

1 Geometric Definition
2 Algebraic Definition
3 Equivalence of the two Definitions
4 Footnotes and References

Cross product
Geometric Definition
The cross product is written with a "times sign"[1] between the vectors. Letting
Subject classification: this is a
be the cross product of "times" , we have: mathematics resource.

Subject classification: this is a

physics resource.

The magnitude of is product of the lengths of the two vectors times the sine of
Educational level: this is a
the angle between them: secondary education resource.

, Educational level: this is a tertiary

(university) resource.

where and , and pointing in the direction perpendicular to

the plane formed by the two vectors:

This leaves an ambiguityit could point in either of two opposite directions. The ambiguity is resolved by the "right hand
rule"if the fingers of the right hand (except the thumb) are curled as if to depict the rotation of the first vector into the
second (following the angular direction of the smallest angle between them), then the thumb points in the direction of the
cross product.

A few properties can be deduced from this definition:

It is homogeneous in each argument: .

If the two vectors point in the same direction, or opposite directions, their cross product is zero. This is because the

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sine of 0 or 180 is zero. It is fortunate that this is so, because the right hand rule couldn't be applied in that case.
The cross product of two vectors is perpendicular to each of those vectors.
It is anticommutative: .
The cross product has an intrinsic "handedness" or chirality, due to the use of the right hand rule. If one looks in a
mirror at two vectors and their cross product, the cross product will appear to point in the wrong direction.

Algebraic Definition
The cross product has a remarkable, convenient, and elegant algebraic formulation. If the components of a vector in 3-
dimensional Cartesian space are given with subscripts: , , and , then the cross product of vectors and is
given by:

It needs to be emphasized that this formula

only works if the components of the vectors are
described in Cartesian space. In other
coordinate systems, it may be necessary to use
other, more complicated formulas.

This can be put into a particularly convenient and easy-to-remember form

through the use of determinants. Letting , , and be the Cartesian unit
basis vectors, and taking a slight liberty in the meaning of multiplication, we
have:

The cross-product is perpendicular to

the vectors a and b, and points in the
direction of the thumb of the right
hand when the fingers curl in the
direction to move a to b. If the order
The theory of determinants tells us that the determinant changes sign if any of the vectors were reversed, the
two rows of the matrix are exchanged, so swapping the two vectors changes fingers would curl in the opposite
direction, so the cross product would
the signthe cross product is anticommutative. The theory of determinants
point in the opposite direction.
also tells us that it is homogeneous. One can also work out that it is
distributive:

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Equivalence of the two Definitions

It is important to prove that the geometric and algebraic definitions of
the cross product are the same. The proof is somewhat difficult. First,
we need a few lemmas, that is, preliminary theorems.

Notation: We will use a fixed vector throughout. Consider the plane

perpendicular to . The projection of any other vector (say ) onto
will be denoted . See Figure 1.

What if is zero? Its perpendicular plane is

undefined. But in that case the lemma we are trying
to prove (distributivity) will be trivially true.

Figure 1. The "star" operation is the

projection of a vector onto the plane .
Lemma 1: Using the geometric definition of the cross product:

Proof: Let be the angle between and . We have:

Since is perpendicular to , we have:

Figure 2. and give the same cross

product.

So they have the same length. Also, and point in the same direction, the direction perpendicular to the
plane formed by and . See Figure 2.

Q.E.D.

Lemma 2: Letting be another vector:

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Proof: We use the "parallelogram rule" for vector addition. In perspective, the vectors might look like Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 3. Two vectors, with their "star" Figure 4. Addition of the two vectors.
projection vectors.

But if we look directly down on the plane, and are the same, as are
and , and and .

Q.E.D.

Lemma 3: The cross product, using the geometric definition, obeys the
distributive law:

Figure 5, showing the parallelogram rule

when viewed directly down on the plane.
The green dot symbolizes vector C
Proof: pointing directly toward the viewer.

If we look directly down on the plane perpendicular to C, we can once

again see the addition of and as shown in Figure 5. If we rotate that diagram clockwise by 90 and scale by the
length of , we get the cross products of all those vectors with C, as shown in Figure 6. Those cross products all lie in the
plane perpendicular to C, and the addition of , by the parallelogram rule, is faithfully carried over into the
addition of .

This shows that

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By lemma 2, this becomes

And by lemma 1, this becomes

Q.E.D.

By the antisymmetry of the cross product, it is also distributive in the

second argument:

Theorem: The geometric and algebraic definitions of the cross product

are the same.

Proof: Let the vectors and be expressed as linear combinations of

the Cartesian unit basis vectors , , and :

Figure 6, showing various vectors and

their cross products with C. All of these
(The numbers are the components of the two vectors.) vectors lie in the plane perpendicular to C.

By lemma 3, and linearity, we can expand the cross product:

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Now inspection of the cross products of the basis vectors, using the geometric definition and the right hand rule, shows
that:

Figure 7. Cartesian basis vectors. The

system is right handed.

So

which is the same as the algebraic definition.

Q.E.D.

Footnotes and References

1. A real, old-fashioned, times sign. Not an asterisk.

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