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    A Practical Application of Vector Dot and Cross Products

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    gillawat
    A surveyor determines the coordinates of the four corners of a roof to optimize the installation of solar panels. Vector dot and cross products are used to calculate important values like the magnitudes and directions of the edge vectors of the roof, the normal vector perpendicular to the roof surface, and the angle between the sun's direction and the roof's normal vector. This angle determines the elevation of the sun above the roof and thus the amount of solar energy that will hit the panels.

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    A Practical Application of Vector Dot and Cross Products

    Uploaded by

    gillawat
    33 views2 pages
    A surveyor determines the coordinates of the four corners of a roof to optimize the installation of solar panels. Vector dot and cross products are used to calculate important values like the magnitudes and directions of the edge vectors of the roof, the normal vector perpendicular to the roof surface, and the angle between the sun's direction and the roof's normal vector. This angle determines the elevation of the sun above the roof and thus the amount of solar energy that will hit the panels.

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    10Page129

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    A surveyor determines the coordinates of the four corners of a roof to optimize the installation of solar panels. Vector dot and cross products are used to calculate important values like the magnitudes and directions of the edge vectors of the roof, the normal vector perpendicular to the roof surface, and the angle between the sun's direction and the roof's normal vector. This angle determines the elevation of the sun above the roof and thus the amount of solar energy that will hit the panels.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    33 views2 pages

    A Practical Application of Vector Dot and Cross Products

    Uploaded by

    gillawat
    A surveyor determines the coordinates of the four corners of a roof to optimize the installation of solar panels. Vector dot and cross products are used to calculate important values like the magnitudes and directions of the edge vectors of the roof, the normal vector perpendicular to the roof surface, and the angle between the sun's direction and the roof's normal vector. This angle determines the elevation of the sun above the roof and thus the amount of solar energy that will hit the panels.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    A Practical Application of Vector Dot and Cross Products 129

    Solar panels have to be installed


    carefully so that the tilt of the roof, and the
    direction to the sun, produce the largest
    possible electrical power in the solar panels.

    A simple application of vector dot and


    cross products lets us predict the amount of
    electrical power the panels can produce.

    A surveyor on the sidewalk uses his instruments to determine the coordinates


    of the four corners of a roof where solar panels are to be mounted. In the picture
    shown above, suppose the points are labeled counter clockwise from the roof corner
    nearest the camera in units of meters: P1(6, 8, 4); P2(21, 8, 4); P3(21, 16, 10) and
    P4(6, 16, 10)

    Problem 1 – What are the components to the two edge vectors defined by A = P2-P1
    and B = P4-P1. Write the vector in standard notation with x, y and z being the
    coordinate unit vectors.

    Problem 2 – What are the magnitudes of the vectors A and B, and in what units?

    Problem 3 – What are the components to the vector, N, perpendicular to A and B


    and the surface of the roof?

    Problem 4 – What is the magnitude of N and its units?

    Problem 5 – The sun is located along the unit vector S = ½ x – 6/7 y + 1/7z. If the flow
    of solar energy is given by the vector F = 910 S in units of watts/meter2, what is the dot
    product of F with N, and the units for this quantity?

    Problem 6 – What is the angle between N and S? What is the elevation angle of the
    sun above the plane of the roof?

    Space Math http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov


    Answer Key 129
    Problem 1 – What are the components to the two edge vectors defined by A = P2-P1 and B =
    P4-P1. Write the vector in standard notation with x, y and z being the coordinate unit vectors.

    Answer: A = (21-6)x +(8-8)y + (4-4)z so A = 15x


    B = (6-6)x + (16-8)y + (10-4)z so B = 8y + 6z

    Problem 2 – What are the magnitudes of the vectors A and B, and in what units?

    Answer: ||A|| = 15 meters ||B|| = (82 + 62)1/2 = 10 meters

    Problem 3 – What are the components to the vector, N, perpendicular to A and B and the
    surface of the roof?

    Answer: Use the vector cross product: N = A x B so N = 0x – 90y +120z

    Problem 4 – What is the magnitude of N and its units?


    Answer: ||N|| = ( (-90)2 + (120)2)1/2 so ||N|| = 150 meters2 which is the area of the roof

    Problem 5 – The sun is located along the unit vector S = ½ x – 6/7 y + 1/7z. If the flow of solar
    energy is given by the vector F = 910 S in units of watts/meter2, what is the dot product of F
    with N, and the units for this quantity?

    Answer: F = 910 (1/2x -6/7y +1/7z) = 455x – 780y + 130z.

    The dot product is just FdotN = 455*(0) -780*(-90) + 130*120 = 85,800 watts.

    Problem 6 – What is the angle between N and S? What is the elevation angle of the sun
    above the plane of the roof?

    Answer: From the definition of dot product: F dot N = ||F|| ||N|| sin θ

    Then since ||F|| = 910 and ||N|| = 150 and FdotN = 85,800 we have

    Sinθ = (85800/(910x150)) = 0.629 and so θ = 39o. This is the angle between the normal to the
    surface and the incident solar rays. The compliment of this is the elevation of the sun above
    the plane of the roof or 90-39 = 51o.

    Space Math http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov

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