[Math] Set of orthogonal vectors’ properties

linear algebraorthogonalityorthonormal

If, $\quad 0 < r \leq n $, and $S = \{v_1, v_2, … , v_n\} $ , is an orthogonal set of non zero vectors in $R^n$ (with the Euclidean inner product), how many of the assertions are true?

$\bullet $ S is linearly independent

$\bullet $At least one component of every $v_i$ is equal to 0

$\bullet $S is an orthonormal set

$\bullet $S is a basis for $R^n$

I understand that the orthogonality of the vectors implies that they are linearly independent and if there were n vectors it would span $R^n$ and hence be a basis, however I cannot seem to validate or disprove the second and third statements and I also don't know how to show that there are n vectors. Any helps or hints would be appreciated.

Best Answer

Assertion 1 is true since each vector's orthogonal projection onto the space spanned by the others is $0$. Hence assuming linear dependence of a $v_k$ to the other vectors in $S$ results in the contradicting conclusion that $v_k=0$.

Assertion 2 is false. Consider for $n\geq 3$, an $S$ where $v_k$ has all entries $1$s except for the $k$th component which is $a$. Then the dot product of any two is $2a+n-2$. Setting this to $0$ and solving gives $a=1-\frac{n}{2}$. The resulting vectors form an orthogonal basis and none have any component $0$. For $n=2$, we can take any vector $\langle a,b\rangle$ and $\langle b,-a\rangle$ and choose $a,b\neq 0$. For $n=1$ all choices of $v_1$ are counterexamples.

Assertion 3 is false since in the example just given to disprove assertion 2, the vectors are not unit length.

Assertion 4 is true since we proved assertion 1 and there are as many vectors as the dimensionality of $\mathbb{R}^n$.

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