The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality is a fundamental result in linear algebra and analysis that asserts a relationship between two vectors in an inner product space. Specifically, it states that for any vectors and , the following inequality holds:
where denotes the inner product of and , and and are the norms (lengths) of the vectors. This inequality implies that the angle between the two vectors satisfies , which is a crucial concept in geometry and physics. The equality holds if and only if the vectors are linearly dependent, meaning one vector is a scalar multiple of the other. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality is widely used in various fields, including statistics, optimization, and quantum mechanics, due to its powerful implications and applications.
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