Alphabeta Math

Inner Product Spaces and Orthogonality: Examples and Counterexamples

About this page
How statement and proof provenance work

The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.

  • Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
  • AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
  • AI-generated: a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.

These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.

✓ 16 results · all verified · 10 also independently AI-judged
Every result on this page is machine-checked by a proof checker and read in full and owner-audited; the judge is an additional, independent cross-model AI review of the proofs. The 6 not AI-judged were verified by owner audit (typically over a confirmed judge false positive), not failures.
1 · Prerequisites
Abstract Algebra
Combinatorics
Coxeter Groups
Linear Algebra
Real Analysis
Set Theory
2 · Logical flowchart

3 · Items

Example

Positive coordinate weights define an inner product and change lengths and projections

Example

The Frobenius inner product on a real or complex matrix space

Example

Evaluation at four distinct real points gives an inner product on polynomials of degree at most three

Example

Gram–Schmidt on an explicit basis of ℝ³

Example

Gram–Schmidt on an explicit basis of ℂ² with conjugation visible

Example

A worked QR factorisation of an invertible real matrix

Example

Bessel's inequality is strict for a vector outside the span of a proper orthonormal set

Example

Projection onto a plane in ℝ³ and the nearest-point calculation

Example

The Riesz representative of an explicit functional on ℂ³

Example

The adjoint of an explicit map ℂ²→ℂ³ is its conjugate-transpose matrix

Example

The Gram determinant of two vectors is ‖ u‖²‖ v‖²-|⟨ u,v⟩|² and detects dependence

Counterexample

A nondegenerate indefinite symmetric form can have W∩ W^⊥≠0

False statement

FALSE: Every complex inner product satisfies ⟨ u,v⟩=⟨ v,u⟩

False statement

FALSE: Every orthogonal set is an orthonormal basis

False statement

FALSE: Every idempotent endomorphism of an inner product space is an orthogonal projection

False statement

FALSE: On a complex inner product space, (λ T)^*=λ T^* for every scalar

Sources