Orthogonal vectors

Two vectors u, v ∈ R n are said to be orthogonal to each other if

< u, v >= u.v = 0.

Dr. Sabitha D’Souza September 20,2022 1/9

Geometrical significance

Consider two lines through the origin determined by vectors u and v . Two
lines OV and OU are geometrically perpendicular if and only if the
distance from u to v is same as the distance from u to −v .
(dist(u, −v ))2 = ∥u − (−v )∥2 = ∥u + v ∥2
= ∥u∥2 + ∥v ∥2 + 2⟨u, v ⟩
Now replace v by −v in the above expression.
(dist(u, v ))2 = ∥u∥2 + ∥ − v ∥2 + 2⟨u, −v ⟩
= ∥u∥2 + ∥v ∥2 − 2⟨u, v ⟩
Two distances are equal if and only if 2⟨u, v ⟩ = −2⟨u, v ⟩
4⟨u, v ⟩ = 0 ie ⟨u, v ⟩ = 0.
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Pythagoras theorem

Let u, v ∈ V be orthogonal to each other. Then

∥u + v ∥2 = ∥u∥2 + ∥v ∥2 .More generally, suppose {v1 , v2 , . . . , vk } is the set
of vectors such that they are pairwise orthogonal; ie vi ⊥ vj if i ̸= j. Then,
∥ ki=1 vi ∥2 = ki=1 ∥vi ∥2
P P

Proof.
∥ ki=1 vi ∥2 = ⟨ ki=1 vi , kj=1 vj ⟩
P P P
P
= 1≤i,j≤k ⟨vi , vj ⟩
= ki=1 ⟨vi , vj ⟩ since ⟨vi , vj ⟩ = 0
P

= ki=1 ∥vi ∥2
P

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Problem

Prove that a parallelogram is a rhombus if and only if the diagonals are

perpendicular to each other.
Proof.
Suppose x, y denote the adjacent lines of the parallelogram. Then we have
to prove that ∥x∥ = ∥y ∥ if and only if ⟨x + y , x − y ⟩ = 0 (Expand this
expression )

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Orthogonal Projection onto a line

Let v ∈ R n be any vector. Let u be any unit vector (i.e ∥u∥ = 1). We
want to find whether there is a vector u0 in the set Ru which is nearest to
v . i.e we are looking for a real number t0 such that d(v , t0 u) ≤ d(v , tu)
for all t ∈ R

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The vector Pw (v ) is called the orthogonal projection of v on w . From the
⟨v ,w ⟩
figure, Projection of v on w is given by Pw (v ) = ⟨w ,w ⟩ .w
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If ∥w ∥ = 1 then Pw (v ) = ⟨v , w ⟩.w
Definition
Let V be an inner product space. Let u be a unit vector and v ∈ V be any
arbitrary vector. Then the projection Pu (v ) of v onto the line Ru is
defined by Pu (v ) = ⟨u, v ⟩.u.

Note that Pu (v ) is the point on Ru closest to v .

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Proposition
For a unit vector u and any vector v ∈ V , we let Pu (v ) = ⟨u, v ⟩.u.Then
d(Pu (v ), v ) ≤ d(αu, v ) for any α ∈ R

Proof.
First we observe that (v − Pu (v )) ⊥ u;
So ⟨v − Pu (v ), u⟩ = ⟨v , u⟩ − ⟨⟨u, v ⟩.u, u⟩
= ⟨v , u⟩ − ⟨v , u⟩⟨u, u⟩
= ⟨v , u⟩ − ⟨v , u⟩
= 0 Hence (v − Pu (v )) ⊥ αu for all α ∈ R and therefore
(v − Pu (v )) ⊥ (Pu (v ) − u) for all α ∈ R
By Pythagoras theorem , ∥v − αu∥2 = ∥v − Pu (v ) + Pu (v ) − αu∥2
= ∥v − Pu (v )∥2 + ∥Pu (v ) − αu∥2
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Thus we get d(αu, v )2 ≥ d(Pu (v ), v )2 and equality holds if and only if
αu = Pu (v )
Definition
Let u be a unit vector and let v be any arbitrary vector. The orthogonal
projection of v along the vector u is defined as Pu (v ) = ⟨u, v ⟩u. If u is
u
any non-zero vector Pu (v ) = ⟨ ∥u∥ u
, v ⟩ ∥u∥ = ⟨u,v ⟩
⟨u,u⟩ u

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