The Geometry of the Dot and Cross Products （点的几何形状和交叉的产品）.pdf

The Geometry of the Dot and Cross Products Tevian Dray Department of Mathematics Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331 tevian@ Corinne A. Manogue Department of Physics Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331 corinne@ January 15, 2008 Abstract We argue for pedagogical reasons that the dot and cross products should be defined by their geometric properties, from which algebraic representations can be derived, rather than the other way around. 1 Introduction Most students first learn the algebraic formula for the dot and cross prod- ucts in rectangular coordinates, and only then are shown their geometric interpretations. We believe this should be done in the other order. Students tend to remember best the first definition they use; this should not be an algebraic formula devoid of context. The geometric definition is coordinate independent, and therefore conveys invariant properties of these products, not just a formula for calculating them. Furthermore, it is easier to derive the algebraic formula from the geometric one than the other way around, as we demonstrate below. 1 v θ w v w |w| Figure 1: The dot product is fundamentally a projection. 2 Dot Product The dot product is fundamentally a projection. As shown in Figure 1, the dot product