Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/ia/paper-1/5c/solution

The dot product and Euclidean norm are and . For every real ,
Its quadratic discriminant is nonpositive, proving the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality . In the inequality asked for, equality holds exactly when is a positive scalar multiple of , and
Using the Levi-Civita symbol and its contraction identity,
Put , the scalar triple product. Cyclic symmetry gives , so each requested angle satisfies . If every pairwise angle is and , the preceding identity gives
and therefore . This is when ; for a right-handed orthonormal basis and , has norm .
The three planes have equations , , and . They meet at one point exactly when , meaning their normals are linearly independent vectors. The point is

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