 Sum of two linear projections

For linear projections $E,F$, expanding the square proves that their sum is a linear projection exactly when $EF=-FE$. Multiplying this equality on the left and right by $E$ gives $EF=-EFE$ and $EFE=-FE=EF$, hence $2EF=0$. If the field has characteristic different from two, this forces $EF=FE=0$, and those conditions also suffice. In characteristic two, the condition instead reduces to commutation; $E=F=I$ has sum zero but nonzero product. For three commuting linear projections, the square-minus-sum is $2(EF+EG+FG)$, so vanishing of the triple product alone is not sufficient.