Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/paper-2/17/d/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 17 d Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
At , , while and are independent. Their span is a plane. A solution requires to lie in that plane, so every scalar triple product formed from two columns and must vanish. The product with vanishes identically; the other two give the plane condition.
Explicitly, , soThus is necessary and, since the two columns span the plane, sufficient. The equations then give and , soThe solution is an affine line parallel to the homogeneous null space from part (c), obtained by intersecting the compatible constraint planes. Every point on it is nonzero because .
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