Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2024 / Paper 2 / 11 / d / iv / Solution

The vector $\mathbf{c}=\mathbf{p}\times \hat{\mathbf{a}}$ is a normal vector to the span of $\mathbf{p}$ and $\hat{\mathbf{a}}$. Since $\mathbf{c}\ne 0$, these vectors determine a plane. Thus the missing words are

the line and the origin.

Indeed this plane consists of all linear combinations of $\mathbf{p}$ and the line's direction vector.