A Euclidean space is a real inner product space (V,⟨⋅,⋅⟩)(V,\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle) with dim⁡V<∞\dim V<\infty.

Equivalent characterizations

Equivalently, it is a finite-dimensional (hence a finite-dimensional ) over R\mathbb{R}. The inner product determines lengths via the and the notion of perpendicularity via .

Examples
  • Rn\mathbb{R}^n with the dot product ⟨x,y⟩=∑i=1nxiyi\langle x,y\rangle=\sum_{i=1}^n x_i y_i.
  • Any linear subspace W⊆RnW\subseteq \mathbb{R}^n with the dot product restricted to WW.