Proofs

Proof of the dot product formula

My experiences with the dot product

I struggled quite a bit when I first encountered the dot/scalar product in school. The dot product between two vectors a and b was defined to be ab=|a||b|cosθ where θ is the angle between the two vectors. This definition posed a bit of stumbling block for me. Up until this point, most definitions has come to be pretty intuitive (and if not at first, it starts feeling reasonably natural usually within a week or two of working with it). This formula or definition seems like it is simply plucked out of midair.

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