A characterization of orthogonality (Q1039872): Difference between revisions

The author proves the equivalence of two notions of line-orthogonality in real inner-product spaces endowed with a Euclidean or hyperbolic metric in the manner of the author's [Classical geometries in modern contexts. Geometry of real inner product spaces. 2nd ed. Basel: Birkhäuser (2008; Zbl 1135.51002)], one defined by means of the Pythagorean theorem -- stating that line \(l_0\) is orthogonal to line \(l_1\) if there are three distinct points, \(p_0\), \(p_1\), and \(s\), with \(s\) on both \(l_0\) and \(l_1\), and \(p_i\) on \(l_i\setminus l_{1-i}\) for \(i=0,1\), that form the vertices of a right triangle in the Pythagorean sense (i.e.\ such that \(\|p_0-p_1\|^2 = \|p_0- s\|^2 + \|p_1- s\|^2\) in the Euclidean setting, or such that \(\text{cosh\,hyp}(p_0, p_1)=\text{cosh\,hyp}(p_0, s)\text{cosh\,hyp}(s, p_1)\) in the hyperbolic setting, where \(\text{cosh\,hyp}(x, y) = \sqrt{1+x^2} \sqrt{1+y^2} - xy\)) -- and the other one stipulating that \(l_0\) is orthogonal to \(l_1\) if there is point \(p\) on \(l_0\), whose distance from an intersection point \(s\) of \(l_0\) and \(l_1\) is less than the distance from \(p\) to any point on \(l_1\setminus l_0\).