Functional Analysis – How to Show C[0,1] is Not a Hilbert Space

functional-analysis

Show that the space $C[0, 1]$ of real-valued continuous functions on the
unit interval $[0, 1]$ with the sup norm
$$
\|f\|=\sup\{|f(x)|:\ x\in[0,1]\}
$$
is not a Hilbert space with respect to any inner product .

My attempts: as I have to find a Cauchy sequence $(f_n)_n$ which converges to a function $f$ which is not continuous, but I can't construct such a sequence $(f_n)_n$.

Best Answer

Any norm coming from an inner product satisfies the parallelogram identity. If for instance you take $f(x)=x$, $g(x)=1$, then $$ \|f+g\|^2+\|f-g\|^2=5, $$ while $$ 2\|f\|^2+2\|g\|^2=4. $$

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