Question

Determine the volume of the parallelepiped with one vertex at the origin and the three vertices adjacent to it at (2, â1, â1), (2, 4, â2), and (2, â6, 1).

Answer 1

23

Explanation:

Here is the complete question

Find the volume of the parallelepiped with one vertex at the origin and adjacent vertices at (1, 0, -3), (1, 2, 4), and (5, 1, 0).

Solution

We find the volume of the parallelepiped by making a 3 × 3 column matrix whose columns are the corresponding coordinates of the vertices of the parallelepiped.

So, (1, 0, -3), (1, 2, 4) and (5, 1, 0)

`A = \left[\begin{array}{ccc}1&1&5\\0&2&1\\-3&4&0\end{array}\right]`

The determinant of A is the volume of the parallelepiped. So,

detA = 1(2 × 0 - 4 × 1) - 1(0 × 0 - (-3) × 1) + 5(0 × 4 - (-3) × 2)

= 1(0 - 4) - 1(0 + 3) + 5(0 + 6)

= 1(-4) - 1(3) + 5(6)

= -4 - 3 + 30

= 23

So the volume of the parallelepiped is 23