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I got from wikipedia that the dot product is also referred to as the "scalar product" and that the cross product is also referred to as the "vector product". Can anyone confirm my inference on the order of operations based off the previous statement?

Say I have three vectors, A, B, and C.

If I perform this operation

D = A * B X C.

I know in basic arithmetic, there is PEMDAS, where if you had something like d = 4 + 3 * 2, the 3 * 2 operation would be completed first. Is there also similar for vector operations. Based my inference, I assume here that the cross product gets calculated first, then the dot product. Is that a correct assumption?

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1 Answer

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The cross product would have to occur first. If not, then you can not use the operation because after you do the dot product, you would have a scalar and a vector, not two vectors. You are correct in thinking so!

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