Find the vector set of all orthogonal to vectors vec(v) =(1,2,3,4), vec(w) =(2,−2,6,−4) in RR^4. I think orthogonal is means the vectors dot product to be 0. I maybe can find one of the vectors, but how can I find all of them?

propappeale00

propappeale00

Answered question

2022-10-23

Find the vector set of all orthogonal to vectors v = ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ), w = ( 2 , 2 , 6 , 4 ) in R 4 . I think orthogonal is means the vectors dot product to be 0. I maybe can find one of the vectors, but how can I find all of them?

Answer & Explanation

Gael Irwin

Gael Irwin

Beginner2022-10-24Added 13 answers

As you said, the set of orthogonal vectors is such that its dot product with v and w are both 0. Choose the vector ( a , b , c , d ) T to represent the orthogonal vector. Take the dot product with both v and w to get
a + 2 b + 3 c + 4 d = 0 2 a 2 b + 6 c 4 d = 0 second equation implies  a = b 3 c + 2 d plug back in first equation to get  b = 2 d plug back in second equation to get  a = 3 c
Thus the set of orthogonal vectors is
( 3 c 2 d c d ) = ( 3 0 1 0 ) c + ( 0 2 0 1 ) d
I believe this can be called a plane in R 4 as each point in the subspace has 2 degrees of freedom. Since there are 2 unique equations (neither of which is 0=0 or 0=1) and which have no constant term, points in the resulting subspace will have their degree of freedom reduced by 2.

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