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- Geometry in the space
- Parametric equations of a straight line in the space
Parametric equations of a straight line in the space
We develop the vector equation of the straight line $r$ expressed in coordinates: $$\begin{array}{rcl}(x,y,z) &=& (a_1,a_2,a_3)+k\cdot (v_1,v_2,v_3) \\ (x,y,z) &=& (a_1,a_2,a_3)+ (k\cdot v_1,k\cdot v_2,k\cdot v_3)\\(x,y,z) &=& (a_1+k\cdot v_1,a_2+k\cdot v_2,a_3+ k\cdot v_3) \end{array}$$ and by separating the coordinates we obtain: $$\left.\begin{array}{rcl} x &=& a_1+k\cdot v_1 \\ y&=& a_2+k\cdot v_2 \\ z&=&a_3+k\cdot v_3\end{array}\right\}$$ These are the parametric equations of the straight line.
Find the parametric equations of the straight line that goes through point $A = (-1, 1, 3)$ and that has $\overrightarrow{v}=(3,-2,1)$ as director vector.
The vector equation is $$(x,y,z)=(-1,1,3)+k\cdot (3,-2,1)$$ Separating by components we obtain: $$\left.\begin{array}{rcl} x &=& -1+3k \\ y&=& 1-2k \\ z&=&3+k\end{array}\right\}$$ which are the parametric equations.