Length of vector resulting from cross product

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I have the following question. In physics forces are vectors. Now I may write a force as \begin{equation} \mathbf{F} = F \mathbf{e}_F \end{equation} with $F$ denoting the length and $\mathbf{e}_F$ denoting the direction vector. But some forces are the result of a cross product (pseudo vectors). The length is then \begin{equation} \vert\mathbf{a}\vert \vert\mathbf{b}\vert \sin(\theta) \end{equation} with $\mathbf{a}, \mathbf{b}$ some vectors (maybe position and velocity) and $\theta$ the angle between them. However these vectors are also sometimes written in the first form. How can I check whether $F$ in the first form is the length of a cross product, or not?

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You can always choose $|a|, |b|, \theta$, that will give you that vector so... ...$F$ is always a length of infinite cross products. What are the restrictions? You must pick $a, b$ in a plane orthogonal to $F$!