Find the acute angle between the lines 2x + y = 4 and -3x + y + 7 = 0.

Answer Details

To find the acute angle between two lines, we need to find the angle between their respective direction vectors. The direction vector of the line 2x + y = 4 is v = i + 2j and the direction vector of the line -3x + y + 7 = 0 is w = -3i + j. The acute angle θ between two vectors a and b is given by the formula cos(θ) = (a.b) / (|a|.|b|), where a.b is the dot product of the vectors and |a| and |b| are their respective magnitudes. Using this formula, we can find cos(θ) for the given direction vectors as follows: cos(θ) = (v.w) / (|v|.|w|) = (-5) / (√5.√10) = -1/√2 Since we are looking for the acute angle, we need to take the inverse cosine of -1/√2 in the range [0, π/2]: θ = cos^-1(-1/√2) ≈ 45° Therefore, the acute angle between the given lines is approximately 45°, which is.