Root system inner product is the Killing form. The cosine of the angle between two roots is constrained to be a half-integral multiple of a square root of an integer. This is because formula_32 and formula_33 are both integers, by assumption, and formula_34 Since formula_35, the only possible values for formula_36 are formula_37 and formula_38, corresponding to angles of 90°, 60° or 120°, 45° or 135°, 30° or 150°, and 0° or 180°. Condition 2 says that no scalar multiples of "α" other than 1 and -1 can be roots, so 0 or 180°, which would correspond to 2"α" or −2"α", are
Triangle inequality angles satisfy: Therefore, and so, in particular, That means side opposite angle is shorter than side opposite the larger angle . But . Hence: A similar construction shows , establishing the theorem. An alternative proof (also based upon the triangle postulate) proceeds by considering three positions for point : (i) as depicted (which is to be proven), or (ii) coincident with (which would mean the isosceles triangle had two right angles as base angles plus the vertex angle , which would violate the triangle postulate), or lastly, (iii) interior to the right triangle between points and (in which case angle