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Homework Problems

- This document contains a homework assignment for a math class involving coordinate geometry and calculus. It includes 5 problems dealing with topics like planes, spheres, cylinders, distances between points, and coordinate planes. - There are also 4 optional challenge problems that are described as being hard or very hard, dealing with dividing spaces with planes and defining new metrics. - Remarks are provided about mathematical concepts like kissing numbers and dense sphere packings that relate to some of the problems, but reading the remarks is not necessary to complete the problems.

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42 views

Homework Problems

- This document contains a homework assignment for a math class involving coordinate geometry and calculus. It includes 5 problems dealing with topics like planes, spheres, cylinders, distances between points, and coordinate planes. - There are also 4 optional challenge problems that are described as being hard or very hard, dealing with dividing spaces with planes and defining new metrics. - Remarks are provided about mathematical concepts like kissing numbers and dense sphere packings that relate to some of the problems, but reading the remarks is not necessary to complete the problems.

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ss_nainamohammed
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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6/29/2004 COORDINATES/ DISTANCE

Maths21a

This is part 1 (of 3) of the weekly homework. It is due Tuesday, July 6 at the beginning of class.
The website will contain information on how to make use of the challenge problem. Dont turn
them in together with the regular homework.
SUMMARY.
d((x, y, z), (u, v, w)) =

(x u)2 + (y v)2 + (z w)2 distance.

(x a)2 + (y b)2 + (z c)2 = r2 equation of a sphere with center (a, b, c) and radius r.
completion of the square:
x2 + ax = b x2 + ax + a2 /4 = b + a2 /4 (x + a/2)2 = b + a2 /4.

Homework Problems
1) (4 points) Describe and sketch the set of points (x, y, z) in R 3 represented by
a) x/4 + y/2 z/3 = 1
b) y 2 + z 2 = 9
c) x2 = 16
d) The distances of (x, y, z) to (0, 0, 0) and (0, 0, 6) is both equal to 5.
Solution:
a) A plane through the points (4, 0, 0), (0, 2, 0), (0, 0, 3).
b) A cylinder with the x axis as a center and radius 3.
c) The union of two planes x = 4 and x = 4.
d) A circle of radius 4 contained in the plane z = 3.
2) (4 points) Find the distance from the point P = (2, 7, 5)
a) to the z-axis.
b) to the yz-coordinate plane.
c) to the origin.
d) to the point Q = (2, 1, 1).
Solution:
2
2
a) A general
point (x, y, z) has distance x + y from the z-axis. The point P has
distance 53 from the z-axis.
b) A general point P = (x, y, z)
has distance x from
the yz-plane.In this case, 2.
2 + y2 + z2 =
x
4 + 49 + 25 = 78.
c) The distance
to
the
origin
is
q

d) d(P, Q) = (2 2)2 + (7 1)2 + (5 1)2 = 52.


3) (4 points)
a) Find an equation of the sphere with center (6, 8, 5) and radius 6.
b) Describe the traces of this surface, its intersection with each of the coordinate planes.

Solution:
a) (x 6)2 + (y 8)2 + (z + 5)2 = 36.
b) z = 0: intersection with xy-plane: (x 6)2 + (y 8)2 = 36 25 = 11 is a circle.
y = 0: intersection with xz-plane: (x 6)2 + (z + 4)2 = 28 is empty.
x = 0: intersection with yz-plane: (y 8)2 + (z + 5)2 = 0 is a point.
4) (4 points) Find the center and radius of the sphere x2 + y 2 + z 2 2x + 4y = 4.

Solution:
a) Completion of the square gives (x2 2x+1)+(y 2 +4y+4)+z 2 = (x1)2 +(y+2)2 +(2z)2 =
4 +
1 + 4 = 9, so that the sphere is centered at the point (1, 2, 0) and has radius
r = 9 = 3.

5) (4 points) Four spheres of equal radius are located in space


so thatany pair oftwo spheres
touch. The centers of three spheres are known to be ( 2, 0, 0), (0, 2, 0), (0, 0, 2) and the
forth sphere with coordinates (a, a, a) is located in the octant {x < 0, y < 0, z < 0 }.
Find the radius of the spheres as well as the center of the fourth sphere.
Solution:
The distance between two of the three spheres is 2. The fourth sphere has to have the
coordinates P = (a, a, a). In order that this sphere touches the first spheres,
we

must have (a + 2)2 + a2 + a2 = 4. Solving the quadratic equation gives a = 2/3.

Remarks
(You dont need to read these remarks to do the problems.)
Remark to problem 5) Mathematicians call the touching
of sphere also kissing. An old mathematical problem
is to determine the kissing number of a sphere.
How many spheres of radius 1 can you arrange around
a given sphere S of radius 1 such that any of them
touches the sphere S. Newton correctly believed that
the kissing number was 12. Proofs that a 13th sphere
can not be squeezed in were only given in the 19th and
20th century. Packing 12 spheres around a central one
can be realized if they kiss the central sphere S at the
vertices of a icosahedron.
An other famous problem is the Kepler problem which
asks about the densest sphere packing in space. A solution of this problem has only been announced a few
years ago. The packing of 4 spheres you have looked
at in the homework is a first small part of the densest
packing. Can you guess, how it should continue?
The challenge problems are optional: at the end of this course you can either turn in a few
solutions to challenge problems instead of doing the computer laboratory. Note that some of
the challenge problems are hard or even very hard.

Challenge Problems
(Solutions to these problems are not turned in with the homework.)
1) In how many regions do the three planes x + y = 0, x + z = 0, y + z = 0 divide the cube
{0 x 1, 0 y 1, 0 z 1}?
2) Show that the set of points in the plane for which the sum of the distances from two points
(1, 0) and (1, 0) is constant=3 forms an ellipse: x2 /a2 + y 2 /b2 = 1.
Hint: Start with

(x 1)2 + y 2 +

(x + 1)2 + y 2 = 3 and bring it into the form of an ellipse.

3) An other distance in the plane is defined by d((x, y), (u, v)) = |x u| + |y v|. It is called the
taxi metric or Manhattan metric because a taxi driver in a town like Manhattan , where
all streets are parallel either to the x or y axis experiences this distance between two points.
How does an ellipse look like in this metric? You can assume that the ellipse is defined as the
set of points (x, y) which have the property that the sum of the distances to (1, 0) and (0, 1)
is 4.
Hint: You can explore this problem by taking a paper with a grid. Choose two points on the
x axis a few grid-points apart and look at all grid-points which satisfy the requirement.
4) We define a new distance between rational numbers: if H(p/q) = max(|p|, |q|) is the height of
a rational number, define d(x, y) = log(x/y). Check that this is a metric on the set of rational
numbers with the property that d(zx, zy) = d(x, y), d(x, y) + d(y, z) d(x, z), d(x, y) = 0
implies x = y, d(x, y) = d(y, x).

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