Definition of a Scalar Triple Product
Description
A detailed tutorial on scalar triple products. Step by step tutorial including several examples of scalar triple products for reference.
Overview
A scalar triple product is a way of applying other multiplication operators to three vectors. Quite often, the scalar triple product is denoted as (a, b, c). It can also be defined as (a b c) = a(b x c). The scalar triple product has three main properties. The first one is that the absolute value of the scalar triple product is the volume of the three dimensional figure that is formed by the three vectors. The second one is the scalar triple product is only zero if the three vectors are linearly independent. The three vectors must lie in the same plane for this to be true. The third one is that the scalar triple product is only positive if all three of the vectors are considered right-handed.
A simple way to write the scalar triple product is to line up the coordinates of the vectors in this form: 
. Theta represents the meausre of the angle between a and b, and n is a unit vector perpendicular to both a and b. The vector this forms is a right-handed system.