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Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary EducationHSC Science Class 11

If a12,12,a are the direction cosines of some vector, then find a - Mathematics

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Question

If `1/2, 1/sqrt(2), "a"` are the direction cosines of some vector, then find a

Sum
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Solution

Given `1/2, 1/sqrt(2), "a"` are the direction cosines of some vector, then

`(1/2)^2 + (1/sqrt(2))^2 + "a"^2` = 1

`1/4 + 1/2 + "a"^2` = 1

`(1 + 2)/4 + "a"^2` = 1

a2 = `1 - 3/4`

= `(4 - 3)/4`

= `1/4`

a = `+-  1/2`

If l, m, n are direction cosines of a vector then l2 + m2 + n2 = 1

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Chapter 8: Vector Algebra - Exercise 8.2 [Page 68]

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Samacheer Kalvi Mathematics - Volume 1 and 2 [English] Class 11 TN Board
Chapter 8 Vector Algebra
Exercise 8.2 | Q 5 | Page 68

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