Effect of a change of basis on the matrix of a bilinear form ($B_2=C^{T}BC$)

If $C$ is the change of basis matrix, then the matrix representation of a bilinear form $M$ that looked like:then the matrix in the new basis is:Sylvester's law of inertia then tells us that the number of positive, negative and 0 eigenvalues of both of those matrices is the same.

Proof: the value of a given bilinear form cannot change due to a change of basis, since the bilinear form is just a function, and does not depend on the choice of basis. The only thing that change is the matrix representation of the form. Therefore, we must have:and in the new basis:and so since:

Related: