Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/paper-2/1/a/solution

With normal vector , a plane through has equation . As , its plane equation is
The distance from a point to a plane is the absolute signed offset divided by the Euclidean norm of its normal vector. Hence the Euclidean distance from the origin is , since . The closest point is , whose Euclidean distance from the origin is and which satisfies the plane equation.

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