Q. 40
Question
Find the angle between the diagonal of a cube and an adjoining edge of the cube.
Step-by-Step Solution
VerifiedThe angle between the diagonal of a cube and an adjoining edge of the cube is \(cos^{-1}\left ( \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} \right )\).
An angle can be defined as a space formed when two straight lines or rays meet at a common endpoint.
The diagonal of a cube can be defined as the line segment that joins any two non-adjacent vertices in it. In Cube, we have 12 face diagonals 2 on each face, and 4 space diagonals.
To find the angle between the diagonal of a cube and an adjoining diagonal of one of the faces of the cube. Let the coordinates of ABCDEFGH be \((0, 0, 0\)), \((1, 0, 0\)), \((1, 1, 0\)), \((0, 1, 0\)), \((0, 1, 1), (0, 0, 1\)), \((1, 0, 1\)), \((1, 1, 1\)).
Now, let's consider the two diagonals, DG and DA.
Let's find the position vector of these diagonals so,
\(\underset{DG}{\rightarrow}=\left<1-0, 0-1, 1-0 \right>\)
\(\underset{DG}{\rightarrow}=\left<1,-1,1 \right>\)
And
\(\underset{DA}{\rightarrow}=\left<0-0, 0-1, 0-0 \right>\)
\(\underset{DA}{\rightarrow}=\left<0,-1,0 \right>\)
Now, the magnitude of the vectors are
\(\left\|\underset{DG}{\rightarrow} \right\|=\sqrt{1^{2}+(-1)^{2}+1^{2}}\)
\(\left\|\underset{DG}{\rightarrow} \right\|=\sqrt{3}\)
And
\(\left\|\underset{DA}{\rightarrow} \right\|=\sqrt{0^{2}+(-1)^{2}+0^{2}}\)
\(\left\|\underset{DA}{\rightarrow} \right\|=1\)
Now, the angle between two vectors \(\underset{a}{\rightarrow}\) and \(\underset{b}{\rightarrow}\) is \(\theta=cos^{-1} \frac{\underset{a}{\rightarrow}\cdot \underset{b}{\rightarrow}}{\left| \underset{a}{\rightarrow}\right|\left|\underset{b}{\rightarrow} \right|}\) .
So,
\(\underset{DG}{\rightarrow}\cdot \underset{DA}{\rightarrow}=\left< 1,-1,1\right>\cdot \left<0,-1,0 \right>\)
\(\underset{DG}{\rightarrow}\cdot \underset{DA}{\rightarrow}=1\)
Let's put all the values in the formula of the angle between two vectors
\(\theta=cos^{-1} \frac{1}{1\sqrt{3}}\)
\(\theta =cos^{-1}\left ( \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} \right )\)