The Dot Product

The Dot Product

Vector addition and subtraction, as well as scalar multiplication, are easy to define as natural extensions of the same operations on real numbers. In contrast, there are different ways to define multiplication between vectors, each of which have their uses. The first of these multiplications we consider is the dot product, which gives a measure of how similar the directions of two vectors are.

This worksheet provides an introduction to the dot product with an emphasis on its geometric interpretation. It will also consider applications of the dot product.