Statics › Section B · Forces and other vectors › Topic B.7
Cross products
Pull on a spanner and the bolt turns about an axis that is perpendicular to both the spanner and your pull. The cross product is the vector operation that captures exactly this, and it is the tool the next chapter uses to compute the moment of a force.
In this topic
- A product that is a vector
- Size and direction
- The right-hand rule
- Order matters
- Cross products of unit vectors
- Worked example: unit-vector algebra
- Vectors in a plane
- Worked example: a 2D cross product
- The determinant formula
- Worked example: a 3D cross product
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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