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Several methods have been developed by mathematicians to uniquely locate the position of a point in space. The easiest and most widely used one is the Cartesian Coordinate System, which is based on mutually perpendicular axes. In this chapter you will learn about this systems: locating a point in these systems and finding the equation of line passing through these points.

Note that when we say a line passes through two given points, we are imposing two conditions on this line. The conditions can be imposed in several other manners also. e.g. we may say that a line passes through one point and is perpendicular to another line. These two conditions are sufficient to uniquely know our line. In this chapter you will also learn various manners of imposing conditions and finding the equation of line under those conditions.

Having known a line uniquely in space we shall try to a lot of timings with it e.g. divide it in a given ratio, find distances of other points or lines from it, find the angle, which this line makes with some straight line. We shall also try to see how to find the equation of line in a new coordinate system if the relationship between the new coordinate system with the old is known.

OBJECTIVE

Having known a line uniquely in space we shall try to a lot of timings with it e.g. divide it in a given ratio, find distances of other points or lines from it, find the angle, which this line makes with some straight line. We shall also try to see how to find the equation of line in a new coordinate system if the relationship between the new coordinate system with the old is known. Having known all this we will then try to see how these concepts can be used to solve some problems of conventional Geometry.

PRE-REQUISITE

This chapter requires the following Pre-requisites

Þ       High school knowledge of Geometrical Axioms & Identities.

Þ       Basic knowledge of Lines, Circles, Planes, Triangles etc.

Þ    Elementary algebra