A Pythagorean Theorem for Volume

Abstract

Lebesgue measurable subsets A and B of parallel or identical k-dimensional affine subspaces of Euclidean n-space E^n satisfy The Product Formula for Volume: Vol_k(A)Vol_k(B) = \sum_{J \in S(n,k)} Vol_k({\pi}_J(A))Vol_k({\pi}_J(B)). Here Vol_k denotes k-dimensional Lebesgue measure; S(n,k) denotes the set of all k-element subsets of {1,2,..., n}; and for J \in S(n,k), E^J = {(x_1,x_2,...,x_n) \in E^n : x_i = 0 for all i \notin J} and {\pi}_J : E^n \rightarrow E^J is the projection that sends the i^{th} coordinate of a point of E^n to 0 whenever i \notin J. Setting B = A, we obtain the corollary: The Pythagorean Theorem for Volume: Vol_k(A)^2 = \sum_{J \in S(n,k)} (Vol_k({\pi}_J(A)))2.