Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/paper-1/1/a/solution

Write . Since is a unit vector, the equation becomes . Thus ranges over the two-dimensional orthogonal complement of : the locus is an affine hyperplane through , with unit normal . Conversely, every such vector satisfies the equation. Its perpendicular distance from the origin is ; is the signed distance in the chosen normal direction.

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