Dot Product & Cross Product?

[capnamerica]

Is knowledge of dot product and cross product required for the MCAT?

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[Geekchick921]

Cross-product in regards to magnetism and the right hand rule, yes. Dot product... couldn't hurt. Khanacademy.org has a few videos on cross and dot product and how they relate to magnetism.

 

[wanderer]

I have no clue what either thing is. Learning them is a waste of time.

 

[Klemptor]

They're very helpful, but not really required. If you're not comfortable with dot and cross products, use these simplified versions:

A "dot" B = |A||B|cosθ
and
A "cross" B = |A||B|sinθ

where θ is the angle between the vectors A and B

 

[loveoforganic]

I have no clue what either thing is. Learning them is a waste of time.

Ditto on the no clue thing. Learning is probably a waste of time.

 

[anbuitachi]

learned them in multivariable calc in high school. forgot all of it by now and i dont think you need it for mcat

 

[lorenzomicron]

Knowing dot and cross products can simplify the calculations for a lot of problems. They are useful only when vector are used.
The dot product is the projection of one vector onto another, resulting in a scalar.
The cross product is the product of two vectors, resulting in the production of a third, novel vector.

You might need to use it in EM and Kinetics, because it simplifies force-velocity calculations and allows you to skip messing around with all the various angles and cosines.