Two lines whose direction cosines are given by $a l+b m+c n=0$ and $f m n+g n l+h l m=0$ are perpendicular…

Two lines whose direction cosines are given by $a l+b m+c n=0$ and $f m n+g n l+h l m=0$ are perpendicular to each other if .........
  1. $\frac{f}{a}+\frac{g}{b}+\frac{h}{c}=0$
  2. $\frac{f}{a}-\frac{g}{b}-\frac{h}{c}=0$
  3. $\frac{f}{a}+\frac{g}{b}-\frac{h}{c}=0$
  4. $\frac{f}{a}-\frac{g}{b}+\frac{h}{c}=0$

Solution

Let the direction cosines of lines are $l_1, m_1, n_1$ and $l_2, m_2, n_2$ Since, $a l+b m+c n=0$ and, $f m n+g n l+h m=0$ So, on eliminating ' $l$ ', we get $ \begin{gathered} f m n+(g n+h m)\left(-\frac{b m+c n}{a}\right)=0 \\ \Rightarrow \quad a f m n=b h m^2+c g n^2+(b g+c h) m n=0 \\ \Rightarrow \quad b h\left(\frac{m}{n}\right)^2+(b g+c h-a f)\left(\frac{m}{n}\right)+c g=0 \text { having } \\ \text { roots } \frac{m_1}{n_1} \text { and } \frac{m_2}{n_2} \text {, so } \\ \text { product of roots }=\frac{m_1 m_2}{n_1 n_2}=\frac{c g}{b h} \end{gathered} $ Similarly on eliminating ' $m$ ', we get $ \begin{gathered} g n l+(h l+f n)\left(-\frac{a l+c n}{b}\right)=0 \\ \Rightarrow \quad b g n l=a h l^2+c f n^2+(c h+a f) l n=0 \\ \Rightarrow a h\left(\frac{l}{n}\right)^2+(c h+a f-b g)\left(\frac{l}{n}\right)+c f=0 \text {, having roots } \\ \frac{l_1}{n_1} \text { and } \frac{l_2}{n_2} \text {, so product of roots } \frac{l_1 l_2}{n_1 n_2}=\frac{c f}{a h} . \end{gathered} $ $\because$ The lines are perpendicular. $ \begin{array}{ll} \therefore & l_1 l_2+m_1 m_2+n_1 n_2=0 \\ \Rightarrow & \left(\frac{c g}{b h}+\frac{c f}{a h}+1\right) n_1 n_2=0 \Rightarrow \frac{f}{a}+\frac{g}{b}+\frac{h}{c}=0 \end{array} $

Asked in: AP EAMCET 2020 (22 Sep Shift 1)

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