inner product

noun, Mathematics
1.
Also called dot product, scalar product. the quantity obtained by multiplying the corresponding coordinates of each of two vectors and adding the products, equal to the product of the magnitudes of the vectors and the cosine of the angle between them.
2.
the integral of the product of two real-valued functions.
3.
the integral of the product of the first of two complex-valued functions and the conjugate of the second.
4.
a complex-valued function of two vectors taken in order, whose domain is a vector space.
Origin
1915-20
Examples from the web for inner product
  • From the properties of the inner product, the fastest increase of f is for a parallel to the gradient.
inner product in Technology

mathematics
In linear algebra, any linear map from a vector space to its dual defines a product on the vector space: for u, v in V and linear g: V -> V' we have gu in V' so (gu): V -> scalars, whence (gu)(v) is a scalar, known as the inner product of u and v under g. If the value of this scalar is unchanged under interchange of u and v (i.e. (gu)(v) = (gv)(u)), we say the inner product, g, is symmetric. Attention is seldom paid to any other kind of inner product.
An inner product, g: V -> V', is said to be positive definite iff, for all non-zero v in V, (gv)v > 0; likewise negative definite iff all such (gv)v < 0; positive semi-definite or non-negative definite iff all such (gv)v >= 0; negative semi-definite or non-positive definite iff all such (gv)v <= 0.="" outside="" relativity,="" attention="" is="" seldom="" paid="" to="" any="" but="" positive="" definite="" inner="" products.="" Where only one inner product enters into discussion, it is generally elided in favour of some piece of syntactic sugar, like a big dot between the two vectors, and practitioners don't take much effort to distinguish between vectors and their duals.
(1997-03-16)