Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/paper-2/11/c/solution

From the line point to , take and line direction . Orthogonal projection gives the nearest parameter . The perpendicular displacement has squared Euclidean norm
Hence the distance from a point to a line in three dimensions is
The nearest point is ; subtracting it from gives a vector orthogonal to , verifying the minimum.

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