Why does normal mean perpendicular

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Three Points Determine a Plane. Tangent to a Surface. Frenet Frame. Check that lines OA and m are perpendicular. How is this line related to m and OA? Finally, find an equation for line OA. What is a normal vector for this line? Example: Finding a plane when the normal is known. Solution: The equation must be 1, 2, 3. The equation is A.

A unit vector is a vector of length 1. Any nonzero vector can be divided by its length to form a unit vector. Thus for a plane or a line , a normal vector can be divided by its length to get a unit normal vector.

Normal as an adjective organic chemistry :. Normal as an adjective physics, of a mode in an oscillating system :. Normal as an adjective rail transport, of points :. Normal as an adjective mathematics :. I didn't see it. In short, it goes back to the Latin source of the word. Brian M. Scott Brian M. Scott k 51 51 gold badges silver badges bronze badges.

I've checked Cambridge and Webster, but found no etymological explanation and so I gave up. Never thought that the modern meaning of the word usual, ordinary is so modern but the mathematical meaning goes so far back in history. It has a long list of print sources including the Oxford dict. Thanks again. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook.