Orthogonal bases • Recall: Suppose that v1 , , vn are nonzero and (pairwise) orthogonal. Then v1 , , vn are independent. Definition 1. A basis v1 , , vn of a vector space V is an orthogonal basis if the vectors are (pairwise) orthogonal. 1 1 0 3 Example 2. Are the vectors − 1 , 1 , 0 an orthogonal basis for R ? 0 0 1 Solution. Note that we do not need to check that the three vectors are independent. That follows from their orthogonality. Example 3. Suppose v1 , , vn is an orthogonal basis of V, and that w is in V. Find c1 , , cn such that w = c1 v1 + + cnvn. Solution. Take the dot product of v1 with both sides: If v1 , , vn is an orthogonal basis of V, and w is in V, then w · v j w = c1 v1 + + cnvn with cj = . v j · v j Armin Straub 1
[email protected] 3 1 1 0 Example 4. Express 7 in terms of the basis − 1 , 1 , 0 . 4 0 0 1 Solution. Definition 5. A basis v1 , , vn of a vector space V is an orthonormal basis if the vectors are orthogonal and have length 1 . If v1 , , vn is an orthonormal basis of V, and w is in V, then w = c1 v1 + + cnvn with cj = v j · w. 1 1 0 Example 6. Is the basis − 1 , 1 , 0 orthonormal? If not, normalize the vectors 0 0 1 to produce an orthonormal basis. Solution. Armin Straub 2
[email protected] Orthogonal projections Definition 7. The orthogonal projection of vector x onto vector y is x · y xˆ = y.