TY - JOUR ID - Szostok2015 LB - Szostok2015 AU - Szostok, Tomasz TI - The generalized sine function and geometrical properties of normed spaces ST - The generalized sine function and geometrical properties of normed spaces JO - Opuscula Math. JA - Opuscula Math. JF - Opuscula Mathematica PY - 2015 VL - 35 IS - 1 SP - 117 EP - 126 DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.7494/OpMath.2015.35.1.117 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.7494/OpMath.2015.35.1.117 AB - Let \((X,\|\cdot\|)\) be a normed space. We deal here with a function \(s:X\times X\to\mathbb{R}\) given by the formula \[s(x,y):=\inf_{\lambda\in\mathbb{R}}\frac{\|x+\lambda y\|}{\|x\|}\] (for \(x=0\) we must define it separately). Then we take two unit vectors \(x\) and \(y\) such that \(y\) is orthogonal to \(x\) in the Birkhoff-James sense. Using these vectors we construct new functions \(\phi_{x,y}\) which are defined on \(\mathbb{R}\). If \(X\) is an inner product space, then \(\phi_{x,y}=\sin\) and, therefore, one may call this function a generalization of the sine function. We show that the properties of this function are connected with geometrical properties of the normed space \(X\). KW - geometry of normed spaces KW - smoothness KW - strict convexity KW - Birkhoff-James orthogonality KW - conditional functional equations SN - 1232-9274 ER -