Parallel Lines

In this section we will use direction vectors rather than slope because in $\mathbb{R}^{3} (means \;3d)$ there will also be parallel lines and direction vectors are easy, but slopes are difficult.

Parallel lines have the same direction vector. Given points, $P=\left[\begin{array}{c} 5\\ 3 \end{array}\right]$ , $Q=\left[\begin{array}{c} 2\\ 8 \end{array}\right]$ , express the line as $$\vec{r}=\vec{P}+t\cdot(\vec{Q}-\vec{P}).$$ The slope equivalent is $(\vec{Q}-\vec{P})$ , called the direction vector. Any two lines with the same direction vector are parallel. In this example, $$Q-P=\left[\begin{array}{c} -3\\ 5 \end{array}\right] \Longleftarrow \text{ direction vector}$$ .

Aside: A conventional slope, rise/run, would be $\frac{5}{-3}=-1.67$. You should notice a similarity between the slope and the direction vector! A big difference is that direction vectors do not imply division.

Suppose we had chosen to start at point $Q$ instead of point $P$. Then the line would be $\vec{r}=\vec{Q}+t\cdot(\vec{P}-\vec{Q})$. In this case,the direction vector is $\vec{P}-\vec{Q}=\left[\begin{array}{c} 3\\ -5 \end{array}\right].$ It is the same line, but we are walking along it in the opposite direction. As it turns out, if the direction vectors are proportional, then the lines are parallel.

These direction vectors are proportional because we can multiply by a constant $(c=-1)$ to convert one into the other.

The direction vector of some line could be $\left[\begin{array}{c} 12\\ -20 \end{array}\right]$ and the line would still be parallel to the line above because we can multiply by $-4$ (a proportionality scalar) and arrive back at the original vector. Often a direction vector will be normalized to the unit circle. To normalize it, we make its length=1. That is done by $\text{Unit Normal Vector}=P/\left|P\right|$. For the vector point denoted by $P=\frac{P_x}{P_y}$, then $\frac{P}{\vert P \vert} = \frac{\left(\begin{array}{c}P_x\\P_y \end{array}\right)}{\sqrt{P_x^2+P_y^2}}.$ Remember that you cannot divide with a vector in the denominator, but what we have done here has a scalar in the denominator.

Example: $Q-P$ given above, has direction vector $\frac{3}{-5}$. Normalize it. $$ \frac{\left[\begin{array}{c} -3\\ 5 \end{array}\right]}{\left\Vert \left[\begin{array}{c} -3\\ 5 \end{array}\right]\right\Vert }=\left[\begin{array}{c} {\displaystyle \frac{-3}{\sqrt{34}}}\\ {\displaystyle \frac{5}{\sqrt{34}}} \end{array}\right]=\left[\begin{array}{c} -.51449\\ 0.85749 \end{array}\right] $$ Notice that the proportionality constant is now $k=1/\sqrt{34}$, but it is still a proportional vector and so it is still parallel to the line from $P$ to $Q$, even though it now has a length of only 1 unit.
Do not confuse the vector norm (length of a vector), the normal vector (perpendicular vector) and the normalized vector (unit length vector). Only the length of a vector should be called a “norm”, but in casual reference the other two may be called that also.