Question #d1deb

1 Answer
Nov 14, 2014

Since #vec{a}# and #vec{b}# are unit vectors,

#|vec{a}|=|vec{b}|=1#,

and since the angle between them is #60^circ#,

#vec{a} cdot vec{b}=|vec{a}||vec{b}|cos(60^circ)=1cdot1cdot1/2=1/2#.

Now, let us compute:

#(6 vec{a}+ vec{b})cdot(vec{a}-2vec{b})#

by multiplying out,

#=6vec{a}cdot vec{a}-12vec{a}cdot vec{b}+vec{b}cdot vec{a}-2vec{b}cdot vec{b}#

by #vec{a}cdot vec{a}=|vec{a}|^2#, #vec{b}cdot vec{b}=|vec{b}|^2#, and #vec{a}cdot vec{b}=vec{b}cdot vec{a}#,

#=6|vec{a}|^2-11vec{a}cdot vec{b}-2|vec{b}|^2#

by plugging in the values we found above,

#=6(1)^2-11(1/2)-2(1)^2=-3/2#


I hope that this was helpful.