 Solution

Put $e=x-u^{\ast }$. If $u^{\ast }$ minimizes distance, then for every $v\in {\mathcal{U}}_n$ and every real $t$,Both signs of arbitrarily small $t$ force $\mathrm{Re}(e,v)=0$. In a complex inner product space, apply the same argument to $iv$ to obtain the imaginary part too. Conversely, if $e$ is orthogonal to the subspace, the Pythagorean theorem for inner product spaces givesThus orthogonality characterizes the unique best approximation:Finite dimension also guarantees existence by solving the invertible Gram matrix normal equations; completeness of the ambient inner product space is unnecessary.