GRADE 12
CHAPTER 11
Three-Dimensional Geometry
Direction cosines (d.c.’s) of a line:
D.c.’s of a line are the cosines of angles made by the line with the positive
direction of the coordinate axes.
If l, m, and n are the d.c.’s of a line, then l2 + m2 + n2 = 1
D.c.’s of a line joining two points P (x1, y1, z1) and Q (x2, y2, z2) are
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1
, , , where PQ = ( x2 x1 )2 ( y2 y1 )2 ( z2 z1 )2
PQ PQ PQ
Direction ratios (d.r.’s) of a line:
D.r.’s of a line are the numbers which are proportional to the d.c.’s of the
line.
D.r.’s of a line joining two points P (x1, y1, z1) and Q (x2, y2, z2) are given by
x1 –x2, y1 – y2, z1 – z2 or x2 – x1, y2 – y1, z2 – z1.
If a, b, and c are the d.r.’s of a line and l, m, and n are its d.c.’s, then
l m n
a b c
a b c
l ,m , and n
a 2 b2 c2 a 2 b2 c2 a 2 b2 c2
Equation of a line through a given point and parallel to a given
vector:
Vector form: Equation of a line that passes through the given point whose
position vector is a and which is parallel to a given vector b is
r a b , where is a constant.
Cartesian form:
o Equation of a line that passes through a point (x1, y1, z1) having d.r.’s as
x x1 y y1 z z1
a, b, c is given by
a b c
o Equation of a line that passes through a point (x1, y1, z1) having d.c.’s as
x x1 y y1 z z1
l, m, n is given by
l m n
Equation of a line passing through two given points:
Vector form: Equation of a line passing through two points whose position
vectors are a and b is given by r a (b a ) , where R
Cartesian form: Equation of a line that passes through two given points
(x1, y1, z1) and (x2, y2, z2) is given by,
x x1 y y1 z z1
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1
Two lines in space are said to be skew lines, if they are neither parallel nor
intersecting. They lie in different planes.
Angle between two skew lines is the angle between two intersecting lines drawn
from any point (preferably from the origin) parallel to each of the skew lines.
Angle between two Non-skew lines:
Cartesian form:
o If l1, m1, n1, and l2, m2, n2 are the d.c.’s of two lines and is the acute
angle between them, then cos l1l2 m1m2 n1n2
o If a1, b1, c1 and a2, b2, c2 are the d.r.’s of two lines and is the acute
a1a2 b1b2 c1c2
angle between them, then cos
2
b12 c12 . a22 b22 c22
a 1
Vector form: If is the acute angle between the lines r a1 b1 and
b1 b2
r a2 b1 , then cos
b1 b2
Two lines with d.r.’s a1, b1, c1 and a2, b2, c2 are
perpendicular, if a1a2 b1b2 c1c2 0
a1 b1 c1
parallel, if
a2 b2 c2
Shortest Distance between two skew lines: The shortest distance is the
line segment perpendicular to both the lines.
Vector form: Distance between two skew lines r a1 b1 and
r a2 b2 is given by,
(b1 b2 ) (a2 a1 )
d
b1 b2
Cartesian form: The shortest distance between two lines
x x1 y y1 z z1 x x2 y y2 z z2
and is given by,
a1 b1 c1 a2 b2 c2
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1
a1 b1 c1
a2 b2 c2
d
(b1c2 b2 c1 ) 2 (c1a2 c2 a1 ) 2 (a1b2 a2b1 ) 2
The shortest distance between two parallel lines r a1 b and r a2 b is
given by,
b (a2 a1 )
d
b
Equation of a plane in normal form:
Vector form: Equation of a plane which is at a distance of d from the
origin, and the unit vector n̂ normal to the plane through the origin is
r .nˆ d , where r is the position vector of a point in the plane
Cartesian form: Equation of a plane which is at a distance d from the origin
and the d.c.’s of the normal to the plane as l, m, n is lx + my + nz = d
Equation of a plane perpendicular to a given vector and passing
through a given point:
Vector form: Equation of a plane through a point whose position vector
is a and perpendicular to the vector N is (r a ).N = 0 , where r is the
position vector of a point in the plane
Cartesian form: Equation of plane passing through the point (x1, y1, z1) and
perpendicular to a given line whose d.r.’s are A, B, C is
A(x x1 ) B( y y1 ) C( z z1 ) 0
Equation of a plane passing through three non-collinear points:
Cartesian form: Equation of a plane passing through three non-collinear
points (x1, y1, z1), (x2, y2, z2), and (x3, y3, z3) is
x x1 y y1 z z1
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1 0
x3 x1 y3 y1 z3 z1
Vector form: Equation of a plane that contains three non-collinear points
having position vectors a , b , and c is (r a ) (b a ) (c a ) 0 , where
r is the position vector of a point in the plane
Intercept form of the equation of a plane: Equation of a plane having x, y,
and z intercepts as a, b, and c respectively i.e., the equation of the plane that cuts
the coordinate axes at (a, 0, 0), (0, b, 0), and (0, 0, c) is given by,
x y z
1
a b c
Planes passing through the intersection of two planes:
Vector form: Equation of the plane passing through intersection of two
planes r .n1 d1 and r .n2 d2 is given by,
r .(n1 n2 ) d1 d2 , where is a non-zero constant
Cartesian form: Equation of a plane passing through the intersection of
two planes A1 x B1 y C1 z D1 0 and A2 x B2 y C2 z D2 0 is given
by,
(A1 x B1 y C1 z D1 ) (A2 x B2 y C2 z D2 ) 0 , where is a non-
zero constant
Co-planarity of two lines
Vector form: Two lines r a1 b1 and r a2 b2 are co-planar, if
(a2 a1 ) (b1 b2 ) 0
x x1 y y1 z z1
Cartesian form: Two lines and
a1 b1 c1
x x2 y y2 z z2
are co-planar, if
a2 b2 c2
x2 x1 y2 y1 z2 z1
a1 b1 c1 0
a2 b2 c2
Angle between two planes: The angle between two planes is defined as the
angle between their normals.
Vector form: If is the angle between the two planes r n1 d1 and
n1 n2
r n2 d 2 , then cos
n1 n2
Note that if two planes are perpendicular to each other, then n1.n2 0 ; and if
they are parallel to each other, then n1 is parallel to n2 .
Cartesian form: If is the angle between the two planes
A1 x B1 y C1 z D1 0 and A2 x B2 y C2 z D2 0 , then
A1A 2 B1B2 C1C2
cos
A12 B12 C12 A 22 B22 C22
Note that if two planes are perpendicular to each other, then
A1A2 B1B2 C1C2 0 ; and if they are parallel to each other,
A1 B1 C1
then
A2 B2 C2
Distance of a point from a plane:
Vector form: The distance of a point, whose position vector is a , from the
plane r nˆ d is d a nˆ .
Note:
o If the equation of the plane is in the form of r N d , where N is the
a N d
normal to the plane, then the perpendicular distance is .
N
d
o Length of the perpendicular from origin to the plane r N d is .
N
Cartesian form: The distance from a point (x1, y1,z1) to the plane Ax + By
Ax1 By1 Cz1 D
+ Cz + D = 0 is .
A 2 B2 C 2
Angle between a line and a plane: The angle between a
line r a b and the plane r n d is the complement of the angle between
1 b n
the line and the normal to the plane and is given by sin
b n
Contribute to this Revision Note:
If you find anything of importance missing from this note, email it to us at revision-notes@[Link], and we’ll
add it to this note under your name!