Let P be the foot of the perpendicular from the point on the line Let the line , , intersect the line at . Then is equal to:
- A
- B
- C
- D
Let P be the foot of the perpendicular from the point on the line Let the line , , intersect the line at . Then is equal to:
Correct answer:A
Standard Method
Given: Point and line . Also, line is
Find: , where is the foot of the perpendicular from to and is the intersection point of and .
A general point on is
So let
The direction vector of is
Then
Since is the foot of the perpendicular, we use
Thus,
Hence,
Now write in parametric form:
For the intersection point of and ,
From the first equation,
Substitute into the third equation:
Then
So,
Now,
Therefore,
So, the correct option is A.
Using extracted solution steps
Given: The point is , the line is , and the second line is .
Find: The value of .
From the solution, the coordinates of the foot of the perpendicular are obtained first. A general point on the line is
Using perpendicularity with direction vector ,
So the foot point is
Next, find the intersection point of the two lines. For ,
Equating coordinates with ,
From these,
Hence,
Now compute the distance:
Therefore,
Hence, the correct option is A.
Students often confuse the given point with the foot of the perpendicular. This is wrong because the foot lies on the given line, while does not necessarily lie on it. First assume a general point on the line and then apply the perpendicular condition.
A common error is using the intersection point of the two lines directly as the foot of the perpendicular. These are different points here. Find from the dot-product perpendicular condition, and find separately by solving the two line equations together.
Some students make sign mistakes while writing the parametric form of as . This changes the direction vector and gives a wrong foot point. Keep the direction ratios exactly as .
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