Title Page

Author Information

• Tevian Dray
• Department of Mathematics
• Oregon State University
• Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
• tevian@math.oregonstate.edu

• Corinne A. Manogue
• Department of Physics
• Oregon State University
• Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
• corinne@physics.oregonstate.edu

Abstract

We argue for pedagogical reasons that the dot and cross products should be defined by their geometric properties, from which algebraic representations can be derived, rather than the other way around.

Technologies Used in This Article

This article is given in two forms.

• The XML version uses MathML (the Mathematics Markup Language) for mathematical expressions, Java for interactive versions of several figures, and JavaScript to launch ancillary pages. MathML is supported by the Mozilla Firefox browser (version 1.5 or later) with the MathML fonts installed, and on the Microsoft Windows platform by the Internet Explorer browser (version 6.0 or later) with the MathPlayer plug-in (version 2.0b or later). Click on the links to update your browser or install the plug-ins.
• The PDF version has static figures only and requires a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click on the link to install the plug-in.

Publication Data

• Published June, 2006. Article ID 1156
• Copyright © 2006 by Tevian Dray and Corinne A. Manogue
• Updated August 2006

Article Links

• The Geometry of Dot and Cross Products (XML)
• The Geometry of Dot and Cross Products (PDF)