MATH 5718, ASSIGNMENT 8 – DUE: 28 APR 2015

LUKE NELSEN

[6A6] Suppose u, v ∈ V . Prove that hu, vi = 0 if and only if ||u|| ≤ ||u + av|| for all a ∈ F.

Proof.
(⇒) If hu, vi = 0, then for all a ∈ F we have hu, avi = ahu, vi = 0 and thus that u and av are orthogonal.
So by the Pythagorean Theorem, ||u + av||2 = ||u||2 + ||av||2 ≥ ||u||2 . Hence ||u + av|| ≥ ||u||.
(⇐) If ||u|| ≤ ||u + av|| for all a ∈ F, then we have 0 ≤ ||u + av||2 − ||u||2 for all a ∈ F. Then
0 ≤ ||u + av||2 − ||u||2 = 2Re(ahu, vi) + hv, vi. Now, if F = R then we are done since assuming hu, vi = 6 0
−hv,vi−1
and letting a = 2hu,vi yields a contradiction. Similarly, if F = C then assuming hu, vi = 6 0 permits the
 
−hv,vi−1
selection of a = 2[(Rehu,vi)2 +(Imhu,vi)2 ] hu, vi which yields 0 ≤ −1. So we may conclude that hu, vi = 0. 

[6A11] Prove that 16 ≤ (a + b + c + d)( a1 + 1b + 1c + d1 ) for all positive numbers a, b, c, d.

√ √ √ √
Proof. Applying Example 6.17(a) to x1 = a, y1 = √1a , x2 = b, y2 = √1b , x3 = c, y3 = √1c , x4 = d and
y4 = √1d yields
 a √ b √c √d  2  √
√ 
√ √ √ 
 
1 1 1 1
16 =  √ + √ + √ + √  ≤ ( a)2 + ( b)2 + ( c)2 + ( d)2 ( √ )2 + ( √ )2 + ( √ )2 + ( √ )2 .
 
 a b c d a b c d

[6A18] Suppose p > 0. Prove that there is an inner product on R2 such that the associated norm is given
by ||(x, y)|| = (|x|p + |y|p )1/p for all (x, y) ∈ R2 if and only if p = 2.
Proof. It is clear that if p = 2, then the dot product and the Euclidean norm satisfy the condition. All we
need to show is that if p 6= 2, then there is no such inner product; we do so by violating the Parallelogram
Equality:
Suppose p 6= 2 and that there is an inner product on R2 with the given associated norm. Then the
Parallelogram Equality holds, and thus we have the following contradiction:
||(1, 0) + (0, 1)||2 + ||(1, 0) − (0, 1)||2 = 2 ||(1, 0)||2 + ||(0, 1)||2

||(1, 1)||2 + ||(1, −1)||2 = 2 ||(1, 0)||2 + ||(0, 1)||2

22/p + 22/p = 2 12 + 12

22/p = 2.

||u+v||2 −||u−v||2
[6A19] Suppose V is a real inner product space. Prove that hu, vi = 4 for all u, v ∈ V .
Proof. Since V is real, we need not be concerned with complex conjugates. So we have
||u + v||2 − ||u − v||2 = hu + v, u + vi − hu − v, u − vi
= (hu + v, ui + hu + v, vi) − (hu − v, ui − hu − v, vi)
= (hu, ui + hv, ui + hu, vi + hv, vi) − (hu, ui − hv, ui − hu, vi + hv, vi)
= 2hv, ui + 2hu, vi
= 4hu, vi
for all u, v ∈ V . 
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