Consider $\mathbb R^3$ with the standard inner product. Let $W$ be the subspace of $\mathbb R^3$ spanned by $(1,0, -1)$. Which of the following is a basis for the orthogonal complement of $W$?
- $\{ ( 1, 0, 1), ( 0, 1, 0)\}$
- $\{(1,2,1),(0,1,1)\}$
- $\{(2,1,2),(4,2,4)\}$
- $\{(2,-1,2),(1,3,1),(-1,-1,-1)\}$
only first set is orthogonal, so it should be correct option. but what is the correct method to solve this problem.
As $\dim W=1$, you know $\dim W^\perp = 3-1=2$, so $4$ is wrong. The vectors must be linearly independant, so $3$ is wrong. Each of the vectors must be orthogonal to each element of $W$ (it suffices to check against a basis of $W$, here only against $(1,0,-1)$), so $2$ is wrong and $1$ is correct (it does not matter if the two vectors in $1$ are othogonal to each other).