D. B. Szyld collected in [8] several proofs of the identity kPk = kI
Pk for nontrivial
linear projections P on a Hilbert space, see also [7] and [2, Example 5.8]. It has found
numerous applications, see for instance [5, 3, 9, 1, 6]. We provide here a somewhat
simpliÖed version of the proof given by T. Kato in [4, Lemma 4]. The di§erence is in
the choice of the vector y.
LEMMA. Let H be a Hilbert space. Let P : H ! H be a linear idempotent
operator such that 0 6= P
2 = P 6= I. Then kPk = kI
Pk.
PROOF. Since P
2 = P and (I
P)
2 = I
P, both norms are no less than one.
If kPk= 1 =kI
Pk, there is nothing to prove, so let x 2 H be nonzero with, say,
:= kP xk = kxk > 1. Then y :=
2x
P x is nonzero due to P y 6= 0. Moreover, the
identity k(I
P) xk = kyk is easily seen by expanding the square of the norms. The
deÖnition of y, the fact that P
2 = P, and this identity together yield