Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/prelims/mathematics-iv/1/b/ii/solution

Suppose a line through meets each . Its intersection with is different from , so lies in . A nonzero direction vector for must therefore satisfy
A square matrix admitting a nonzero vector with has zero determinant. Expanding gives
Thus the necessary condition is
The condition is not sufficient. Take , which is on none of the three original lines. It satisfies the condition, since . The three plane equations become
Their common intersection is the single line . Any proposed line through meeting all three original lines would have to be this . But never meets : their second and third coordinates differ. The zero determinant guarantees a common direction for the three planes; it does not guarantee the required intersections. This is a parallel obstruction to a transversal of three skew lines.

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