How do you find the angle between the vectors #u=5i+5j# and #v=-8i+8j#?

1 Answer
Jul 14, 2016

Angle: #90°#

Explanation:

In order to calculate the angle between two vectors, we have to know that

#cos(theta) = (vecu * vecv)/(||vecu|| ||vecv||)#

#u * v# means the dot product of #u# and #v#, which we can calculate using the formula

#vecu*vecv = u_1 v_1 + u_2 v_2 + ... u_n v_n#

In our case, #vecu = 5hati + 5hatj# and #vecv = -8hati + 8hatj#

#vecu * vecv = 5(-8) + 5(8) = -40 + 40 = 0#

Since the dot product is #0#, we can conclude that #vecu# and #vecv# are perpendicular to each other, so the angle between them would equal #90#.