2020-12-20 连续叉乘的一个等式（THE TRIPLE CROSS PRODUCT）

Main results

Note that the vector $g=b\times c$ is perpendicular to the plane on which vectors $b$ and $c$ lie. Thus, taking the cross product of vector $g$ with an arbitrary third vector, say $a$, the result will be a vector perdendicular to $g$ and thus lying in the plane of vectors $b$ and $c$. Therefore, one can express the vector $f=a\times g$ as a linear combination of the vectors $b$ and $c$, i.e.,
$$f=k_{1}b+k_{2}c.$$

Taking the scalar product of the both sides of this expression with vector $a$, and noting that $a^{\mathrm{T}}f=0$ one obtains
$$k_1{a}^{\mathrm{T}}b+k_2{a}^{\mathrm{T}}c=0.$$

For this equality to be valid for any $a$, $b$, and $c$, one is tempted to write
$$k_1=\lambda \left(a^{\mathrm{T}}c\right),k_2=-\lambda \left(a^{\mathrm{T}}b\right),$$ in which the unknown proportionality constant $\lambda$ has been introduced so as serve to hold true for the above solutions with no loss in generalty.

Thus, one has
$$f=a\times \left(b\times c\right)=\lambda \left(a^{\mathrm{T}}c\right)b+\lambda \left(a^{\mathrm{T}}b\right)c.$$

Selecting arbitrarily $a$, $b$, and $c$, and substituting in the above equality, one obtains $\lambda =1$.

Hence, one eventually obtains the vector identity (向量恒等式)
$$a\times \left(b\times c\right)=\left(a^{\mathrm{T}}c\right)b-\left(a^{\mathrm{T}}b\right)c$$and
$$\left(a\times b\right)\times c=\left(c^{\mathrm{T}}a\right)b-\left(c^{\mathrm{T}}b\right)a.$$

Other rules：

Rule 1.

For $x,y,z\in {\mathbb{R}}^3$, we have
$$x^{\mathrm{T}}{y}^{\times }z{x}^{\mathrm{T}}=-x^{\mathrm{T}}z{y}^{\mathrm{T}}{x}^{\times }-x^{\mathrm{T}}x{z}^{\mathrm{T}}{y}^{\times }+x^{\mathrm{T}}y{z}^{\mathrm{T}}{x}^{\times }$$

$$x^{\mathrm{T}}{y}^{\times }z=z^{\mathrm{T}}{x}^{\times }y=y^{\mathrm{T}}{z}^{\times }x$$

$$x^{\mathrm{T}}{y}^{\times }=-y^{\mathrm{T}}{x}^{\times }$$

$$x^{\times }{y}^{\times }=y{x}^{\mathrm{T}}-x^{\mathrm{T}}y{\mathbf{I}}_3$$

Rule 2

$[x^{\mathrm{T}};y^{\mathrm{T}};z^{\mathrm{T}}]$行列式$$-z{y}^{\mathrm{T}}{x}^{\times }-x{z}^{\mathrm{T}}{y}^{\times }+y{z}^{\mathrm{T}}{x}^{\times }$$

Rule 3

$$x^{\times }{x}^{\times }{x}^{\times }=-x^{T}x{x}^{\times }$$

Rule 4

$$x^{\times }{y}^{\times }z+y^{\times }{z}^{\times }x+z^{\times }{x}^{\times }y=0$$

syms x1 x2 x3 y1 y2 y3 z1 z2 z3
x=[x1;x2;x3];y=[y1;y2;y3];z=[z1;z2;z3];
cross(x,cross(y,z))+cross(y,cross(z,x))+cross(z,cross(x,y))
simplify(ans)