We need to show that the dot product of a vector with itself is equal to the square of the magnitude of the vector.

Linear AlgebraVectorsDot ProductMagnitudeVector Spaces
2025/6/15

1. Problem Description

We need to show that the dot product of a vector with itself is equal to the square of the magnitude of the vector.

2. Solution Steps

Let v\vec{v} be a vector in nn-dimensional space, represented as v=(v1,v2,...,vn)\vec{v} = (v_1, v_2, ..., v_n).
The dot product of v\vec{v} with itself is given by:
vv=v12+v22+...+vn2\vec{v} \cdot \vec{v} = v_1^2 + v_2^2 + ... + v_n^2
The magnitude of the vector v\vec{v}, denoted as v||\vec{v}||, is defined as:
v=v12+v22+...+vn2||\vec{v}|| = \sqrt{v_1^2 + v_2^2 + ... + v_n^2}
The square of the magnitude of v\vec{v} is:
v2=(v12+v22+...+vn2)2=v12+v22+...+vn2||\vec{v}||^2 = (\sqrt{v_1^2 + v_2^2 + ... + v_n^2})^2 = v_1^2 + v_2^2 + ... + v_n^2
Comparing the expression for vv\vec{v} \cdot \vec{v} and v2||\vec{v}||^2, we can see that:
vv=v2\vec{v} \cdot \vec{v} = ||\vec{v}||^2
This shows that the dot product of a vector with itself gives the square of the magnitude of the vector.

3. Final Answer

The dot product of a vector with itself is equal to the square of the magnitude of the vector. This is shown by vv=v2\vec{v} \cdot \vec{v} = ||\vec{v}||^2.