Quaternions and spatial rotation around the "z" axis, then flip it 180 degrees around the "x" axis. Take the other book, flip it 180° around "x" axis first, and 90° clockwise around "z" later. The two books do not end up parallel. This shows that, in general, the composition of two different rotations around two distinct spatial axes will not commute. The vector cross product, used to define the axis–angle representation, does confer an orientation ("handedness") to space: in a three-dimensional vector space, the three vectors in the equation will always form a right-handed set (or a left-handed set, depending on how the cross
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