Inner product of perpendicular and orthogonal vectors

linear algebramatricesorthogonality

Perpendicular means two vectors have a 90-degree angle.
The inner product of perpendicular vectors is 0.
$ ab = |a||b|\cos\theta$, where $\theta = 90$, and $\cos\theta = 0$

But the inner product of two orthogonal matrices (sets of perpendicular vectors) is $I$ rather than 0, like $QQ^T = I$. Why?

Really confused. Thanks~

Best Answer

I think what is confusing you is that the adjectives "orthogonal" and "perpendicular" are synonyms in ordinary English. In mathematics their precise meanings depend on the context.

For nonzero vectors they mean the same thing.

Ab orthogonal matrix is a matrix whose columns (which are vectors) are orthogonal to each other (and each individual column has length $1$).

PS. The product of two matrices is not their "inner product".