What is the purpose of the dot product as opposed to the purpose of the cross product?
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What is the purpose of the dot product as opposed to the purpose of the cross product?
the result of a dot product of two vectors is a scalar ...Quote:
Originally Posted by delgeezee
work, a scalar quantity of energy, is the dot product of force and displacement vectors
the result of a cross product of two vectors is another vector ...
torque, a vector quantity, is the cross product of radius and force vectors
try a google search ... you'll find many more examples and applications.
There is a very simple answer and distinction between the two operations.Quote:
Originally Posted by delgeezee
The dot product operation maps pairs of vectors to a scalar.
The cross product operation maps pairs of vectors to a vector.