Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/paper-2/9/c/solution

The dot product is . Each planar vector is perpendicular to because its third component vanishes. Each has norm one, so the three vectors form an orthonormal eigenbasis. This also follows from the spectral theorem for the real symmetric coefficient matrix.

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