LINEAR ALGEBRA EXERCISES

(WEEK 8: Inner product spaces)

Dr. Phan Thi Huong

HoChiMinh City University of Technology
Faculty of Applied Science, Department of Applied Mathematics
Email: huongphan@hcmut.edu.vn

July 3, 2021

1 Inner product
Definition 1.1. An inner product on a real vector space V is a function that associates a
real number < u, v > with each pair of vectors in V in such a way that the following axioms
are satisfied for all vectors u, v, and w in V and all scalars k.

1. < u, v >=< v, u > [Symmetry axiom]

2. < u + w, v >=< v, u > + < v, w > [Additivity axiom]

3. < ku, v >= k < v, u > [Homogeneity axiom]

4. < u, u >≥ 0 and < u, u >= 0 if and only if u = 0 [Positivity axiom]

A real vector space with an inner product is called a real inner product space.

Definition 1.2. If V is a real inner product space, then the norm (or length) of a vector v
in V is denoted by kvk and is defined by
√
kvk = < v, v >

and the distance between two vectors is denoted by d(u, v) and is defined by
√
d(u, v) = ku − vk = < u − v, u − v >

A vector of norm 1 is called a unit vector.

1
Definition 1.3. The angle θ between vector u and vector v is
 
−1 < u, v >
θ = cos
kukkvk

where 0 ≤ θ ≤ π.

Exercise 1.1. Let < x, y >= x1 y1 − 2x1 y2 − 2x2 y1 + 5x2 y2 + 7x3 y3 .

(a) Prove that < x, y > is an inner product of R3 .

(b) Let u = (1, 2, 3), compute kuk.

(c) Find a unit vector u that is parallel to (3; 2; 1).

(d) Find the angle between vectors u = (−1, 1, 2) and v = (2, 3, 4). Find the distance
between u, v.

2 Orthogonal complement
Definition 2.1. Two vectors u and v in an inner product space V called orthogonal if
< u, v >= 0.

Definition 2.2. Let W be a subspace of a real inner product space V . A vector u is

orthogonal to W if it is orthogonal to a spanning set of W .

Exercise 2.1. In R3 , given U =< (1, 2, −1), (3, −1, 4) > and a vector u = (1, 2, m). Find
m ∈ R such that u⊥U with

(a) the dot product, e.i < x, y >= x1 y1 + x2 y2 + x3 y3 ,

(b) the product < x, y >= x1 y1 − 2x1 y2 − 2x2 y1 + 5x2 y2 + 7x3 y3 .

Definition 2.3. If W is a subspace of a real inner product space V , then the set of all
vectors in V that are orthogonal to every vector in W is called the orthogonal complement
of W and is denoted by the symbol W ⊥

Remark 2.1. Let W is a subspace of a real inner product space V . To find dimension and
a basis for W ⊥ , we follow the following steps

Step 1 Finding a spanning set for W which is denoted by E = {w1 , w2 , . . . , wk }

Step 2 ∀x ∈ W ⊥ ⇔ x⊥W ⇔ x⊥E. It is equivalent to

 

 x⊥w1 
 < w1 , x >= 0

x⊥w 
< w , x >= 0
2 2
⇔ (1)


 ... 

 ...
 
x⊥wk < w + k, x >= 0

2
 If < x, y > can be written as < x, y >= xM y T , the systems (1) is equivalent to
W M xT = 0 (2)
where W is obtained by combining vectors w1 , w2 , . . . , wk as rows of the matrix. Then
by solving the equation (2), we deduce the dimension and a basis for W ⊥ .
Exercise 2.2. In R3 with the dot product, given U =< (1; 2; 3); (−3; 4; 2); (1; 12; 14) >.
Find one basis and the dimension of U ⊥ ?
Exercise 2.3. In R3 with the inner product (x; y) = 3x1 y1 + 2x2 y2 + 4x3 y3 , given F =
{x ∈ R3 |2x1 − 3x2 + x3 = 0}. Find one basis and the dimension of F ⊥ ?

3 The orthogonal projection and distances

Definition 3.1. Let F be a subspace of V . Any vector u ∈ V can be represented uniquely
as u = f + g, where f ∈ F and g ∈ F ⊥ . Then, f is called the orthogonal projection of u
onto the subspace F and g is the distance from u to F .
Remark 3.1. To find the orthogonal project of vector v into the subspace F , we follow the
following steps
Step 1 Find a basis E = {f1 , f2 , . . . , fm } for F .
Step 2 Let v = f + g, where f ∈ F and g⊥F , then we have
v = α1 f 1 + α2 f 2 + · · · + αm f m + g (3)
By taking the inner product of both sides of (3) with respectively f1 , f2 , . . . , fm , we get


 < f1 , v >= α1 < f1 , f1 > +α2 < f1 , f2 > + · · · + αm < f1 , fm > + < f1 , g >

< f , v >= α < f , f > +α < f , f > + · · · + α < f , f > + < f , g >
2 1 2 1 2 2 2 m 2 m 2


 . . .
< fm , v >= α1 < fm , f1 > +α2 < fm , f2 > + · · · + αm < fm , fm > + < fm , g >


Solving this equation system, we get

projF (v) = α1 f1 + α2 f2 + · · · + αm fm
.
If < x, y > can be written as < x, y >= xM y T ,

prF (v) = F T (F M F T )−1 F M v T (4)

where F is a matrix obtained by combining vectors f1 , f2 , . . . , fm as rows of the matrix
and M is the matrix from the inner product.
Exercise 3.1. In R3 defied the inner product < x, y >= x1 y1 −2x1 y2 −2x2 y1 +5x2 y2 +7x3 y3 .
Let F =< (1, 2, 1); (2, 0, 3); (3, 0, 5) > and v = (1, 2, 0).
(a) Find the orthogonal projection of v onto F and the distance from v to F .
(b) Find a basis for F ⊥ and the orthogonal projection of v onto F ⊥ .