# Orthogonal basis

In mathematics, particularly linear algebra, an orthogonal basis for an inner product space Template:Mvar is a basis for Template:Mvar whose vectors are mutually orthogonal. If the vectors of an orthogonal basis are normalized, the resulting basis is an orthonormal basis.

## As coordinates

Any orthogonal basis can be used to define a system of orthogonal coordinates Template:Mvar. Orthogonal (not necessarily orthonormal) bases are important due to their appearance from curvilinear orthogonal coordinates in Euclidean spaces, as well as in Riemannian and pseudo-Riemannian manifolds.

## In functional analysis

In functional analysis, an orthogonal basis is any basis obtained from an orthonormal basis (or Hilbert basis) using multiplication by nonzero scalars.

## Extensions

The concept of an orthogonal (but not of an orthonormal) basis is applicable to a vector space Template:Mvar (over any field) equipped with a symmetric bilinear form , where orthogonality of two vectors v and w means . For an orthogonal basis {ek} :

${\displaystyle \langle {\mathbf {e} }_{j},{\mathbf {e} }_{k}\rangle =\left\{{\begin{array}{ll}q({\mathbf {e} }_{k})&j=k\\0&j\neq k\end{array}}\right.\quad ,}$

where Template:Mvar is a quadratic form associated with : q(v) = Template:Langlev, vTemplate:Rangle (in an inner product space q(v) = | v |2). Hence,

${\displaystyle \langle {\mathbf {v} },{\mathbf {w} }\rangle =\sum \limits _{k}q({\mathbf {e} }_{k})v^{k}w^{k}\ ,}$

where Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar are components of v and w in {ek} .

## References

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