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I must prove the statement below, I believe that I can do this by proof by contradiction. But am I not 100% sure how the contradiction statement should be.

Question Let $\langle \cdot ,\cdot \rangle$ be an inner product. Show that if $\langle x,y\rangle =\langle x,z\rangle$ for all $x$ then $y=z$

My attempt to provide a contradiction statement to prove incorrect:

Let $\langle x,y\rangle =\langle x,z\rangle$ for all $x$ be true but suppose $y\neq z$.

If I did it right then I can pick a value of $x$ that I can use to show why this contradiction will not work, hence proving that $y=z$.

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  • $\begingroup$ I think that what you are trying to do is to prove the contrapositive - that is, to show that if $y\ne z$ then you can find an $x$ such that $\langle x, y\rangle \ne \langle x, z\rangle$. This is a correct proof. $\endgroup$
    – rogerl
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 0:56

2 Answers 2

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Suppose that $\langle x,y\rangle = \langle x,z\rangle$ for every $x\in V$, where $y\in V$ and $z\in V$ are considered to be distinct. Then we can take $x = y - z$, apply the linearity of the inner product and its positive definiteness in order to conclude that: \begin{align*} \langle x,y\rangle = \langle x,z\rangle & \Rightarrow \langle x,y\rangle - \langle x,z\rangle = 0\\\\ & \Rightarrow \langle x, y - z\rangle = 0\\\\ & \Rightarrow \langle y - z, y - z\rangle = 0\\\\ & \Rightarrow y - z = 0 \Rightarrow y = z. \end{align*} which contradicts the assumption that $y\neq z$, and we are done.

Hopefully this helps!

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  • $\begingroup$ Ok I see, you proved it directly I did:Let $y \neq z$ then $\exists a \neq 0$ s.t $y = z +a$ Then $\langle x,z\rangle = \langle x,y\rangle = \langle x,z +a\rangle = \langle x,z\rangle + \langle x,a\rangle$. Let $x = a$ and subtract $\langle x,z\rangle$ from both sides. Thus $0 = \langle a,a\rangle > 0$ which is absurd Does this also work? $\endgroup$
    – Reuben
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 1:13
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    $\begingroup$ @Reuben Yes, it does work. Since $y\neq z$, there exists some $a\in V\backslash\{0\}$ such that $y = z + a$. Hence the proposed reasoning is correct. Well done! $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 1:18
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you so much for your help. $\endgroup$
    – Reuben
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 1:20
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    $\begingroup$ @Reuben you are welcome! I am glad I could help. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 1:20
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$\langle x,y\rangle = \langle x,z\rangle$

Then $\langle x,y-z\rangle =0$

since this is true for all $x\in V$ , let $x=y-z$

Then $\langle y-z,y-z\rangle = 0$

Now by definitenes of inner product, we have $y-z=0$ i.e $y=z$

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