Cross product

Function CROSS (option 3 in the MTH/VECTOR menu) is used to calculate the cross product of two 2-D vectors, of two 3-D vectors, or of one 2-D and one 3- D vector. For the purpose of calculating a cross product, a 2-D vector of the form [Ax, Ay], is treated as the 3-D vector [Ax, Ay,0]. Examples in ALG mode are shown next for two 2-D and two 3-D vectors. Notice that the cross product of two 2-D vectors will produce a vector in the z-direction only, i.e., a vector of the form [0, 0, Cz]:

Examples of cross products of one 3-D vector with one 2-D vector, or vice versa, are presented next:

Attempts to calculate a cross product of vectors of length other than 2 or 3, produce an error message:

Reference

Additional information on operations with vectors, including applications in the physical sciences, is presented in Chapter 9 of the calculator’s user’s guide.

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