 Parametrization of a plane with an auxiliary vector

Let $\mathbf{p}\ne 0$ and choose an auxiliary vector $\mathbf{q}$ with $\mathbf{p}\times \mathbf{q}\ne 0$. Its component perpendicular to $\mathbf{p}$ is ${\mathbf{q}}_{\perp }=\mathbf{q}-(\mathbf{p}\cdot \mathbf{q})\mathbf{p}/|\mathbf{p}{|}^2$. Then all solutions of the Cartesian equation of a plane $\mathbf{x}\cdot \mathbf{p}=k$ areThe two free directions are nonzero, perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to $\mathbf{p}$, so they span its two-dimensional orthogonal complement. This proves completeness as well as direct substitution. If $\mathbf{p}\cdot \mathbf{q}=0$, then ${\mathbf{q}}_{\perp }=\mathbf{q}$. If the dot product is nonzero, another complete form is $\mathbf{x}=\alpha \mathbf{p}+[k-\alpha |\mathbf{p}{|}^2]\mathbf{q}/(\mathbf{p}\cdot \mathbf{q})+\beta (\mathbf{p}\times \mathbf{q})$.