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Question 40 of 51

Q.a, b, c three vectors are such that |a|=3, |b|=4, |c|=5 and each vector is perpendicular to the sum of other two vectors. Find |a+b+c|.

West Bengal WbchseWest Bengal HS (WBCHSE) Board 2023Subjective· 4mImportance★★★★★
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"Each vector perpendicular to the sum of the other two" forces every pairwise dot product to be zero, which makes ∣a⃗+b⃗+c⃗∣2|\vec a+\vec b+\vec c|^2 collapse to just the sum of the squared magnitudes.

Step 1. The condition means a⃗⋅(b⃗+c⃗)=0\vec a\cdot(\vec b+\vec c)=0, b⃗⋅(a⃗+c⃗)=0\vec b\cdot(\vec a+\vec c)=0, c⃗⋅(a⃗+b⃗)=0\vec c\cdot(\vec a+\vec b)=0, i.e.

a⃗⋅b⃗+a⃗⋅c⃗=0,a⃗⋅b⃗+b⃗⋅c⃗=0,a⃗⋅c⃗+b⃗⋅c⃗=0.\vec a\cdot\vec b+\vec a\cdot\vec c=0,\qquad \vec a\cdot\vec b+\vec b\cdot\vec c=0,\qquad \vec a\cdot\vec c+\vec b\cdot\vec c=0.

Step 2. Adding all three equations: 2(a⃗⋅b⃗+b⃗⋅c⃗+c⃗⋅a⃗)=0 ⇒ a⃗⋅b⃗+b⃗⋅c⃗+c⃗⋅a⃗=02(\vec a\cdot\vec b+\vec b\cdot\vec c+\vec c\cdot\vec a)=0\ \Rightarrow\ \vec a\cdot\vec b+\vec b\cdot\vec c+\vec c\cdot\vec a=0.

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