Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / Paper 1 / 6 / c

By the spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices, choose an orthonormal eigenbasis ${\mathbf{u}}_1,{\mathbf{u}}_2,{\mathbf{u}}_3$ corresponding to $6,\sqrt{3},-\sqrt{3}$, with ${\mathbf{u}}_1=(1,1,1{)}^T/\sqrt{3}$. Write $P=[{\mathbf{u}}_1{\mathbf{u}}_2{\mathbf{u}}_3]$ and $\mathbf{x}=P\mathbf{\xi }$. This orthogonal change of coordinates givesThe plane constraint is therefore ${\xi }_1=0$. On that plane the quadratic form vanishes exactly whenConsequently the entire set isThe two direction vectors are nonzero and not parallel, since ${\mathbf{u}}_2,{\mathbf{u}}_3$ are linearly independent. An invertible orthogonal transformation maps each full line to a full line. Thus the set consists of precisely two infinite lines through the origin.