Answer: The volume of the parallelepiped formed by a, b, c.
- A The area of triangle abc, half the cross product magnitude
- B The perimeter of parallelepiped formed by edges a, b, c
- C The area of the base parallelogram spanned by b and c
- D The volume of the parallelepiped formed by a, b, c
Correct answer: D. The volume of the parallelepiped formed by a, b, c
Explanation: The scalar triple product [a b c] = a.(b x c) equals the volume of the parallelepiped formed by vectors a, b, c as edges.
Triangle law of vector addition: placing vector b at the head of vector a, the diagonal from the start to the final head gives the resultant a + b.
Concept context
Vectors, dot product, cross product, and geometric applications