The area of the parallelogram with vertices $\mathrm{A}(1,2,3), \mathrm{B}(1,3, \mathrm{a})$, $C(3,8,6)$ and…

The area of the parallelogram with vertices $\mathrm{A}(1,2,3), \mathrm{B}(1,3, \mathrm{a})$, $C(3,8,6)$ and $D(3,7,3)$ is $\sqrt{265}$ sq. units, then $a=$
  1. -5,2
  2. 6
  3. -6,0
  4. 6,0

Solution

Refer figure $\begin{gathered} \mathrm{A}(\triangle \mathrm{ABC})=\frac{\mathrm{A}(\square \mathrm{ABCD})}{2} \\ =\frac{\sqrt{265}}{2} \end{gathered}$ Also $\mathrm{A}(\triangle \mathrm{ABC})=\frac{1}{2}|\overline{\mathrm{BA}} \times \overline{\mathrm{BC}}|$ Here $\overline{\mathrm{BA}}=-\hat{\mathrm{j}}+(3-\mathrm{a}) \hat{\mathrm{k}}$ and $\overline{\mathrm{BC}}=2 \hat{\mathrm{i}}+5 \hat{\mathrm{j}}+(6-\mathrm{a}) \hat{\mathrm{k}}$ $\begin{aligned} & \text { Now } \overline{B A} \times \overline{B C}=\left|\begin{array}{ccc} \hat{i} & \hat{j} & \hat{k} \\ 0 & -1 & (3-a) \\ 2 & 5 & (6-a) \end{array}\right| \\ & =\hat{i}(-6+a-15+5 a)-\hat{j}(-6+2 a)+\hat{k}(2) \\ & =(6 a-21) \hat{i}-(2 a-6) \hat{j}+2 \hat{k} \end{aligned}$ Magnitude of $\overline{\mathrm{BA}} \times \overline{\mathrm{BC}}=\sqrt{(6 \mathrm{a}-21)^2+(2 \mathrm{a}-6)^2+4}$ $\begin{aligned} & \therefore \frac{1}{2} \sqrt{(6 a-21)^2+(2 a-6)^2+4}=\frac{\sqrt{265}}{2} \\ & \therefore(6 a-21)^2+(2 a-6)^2+4=265 \\ & \therefore 40 a^2-276 a+216=0 \end{aligned}$ \(\therefore \mathrm{a}=\frac{69 \pm \sqrt{(69)^2-(4)(54)(10)}}{20}=\frac{69+51}{20}=\frac{120}{20}=6\) $\therefore a=6$ from option given.

Asked in: MHT CET 2021 (21 Sep Shift 2)

Practice more Vectors questions on Aicharya