/-- An element `φ` of the orthogonal group of `F` can be factored as a product of reflections, and
specifically at most as many reflections as the dimension of the complement of the fixed subspace
of `φ`. -/
theorem LinearIsometryEquiv.reflections_generate_dim_aux [FiniteDimensional ℝ F] {n : ℕ}
    (φ : F ≃ₗᵢ[ℝ] F) (hn : finrank ℝ (ker (ContinuousLinearMap.id ℝ F - φ))ᗮ ≤ n) :
    ∃ l : List F, l.length ≤ n ∧ φ = (l.map fun v => reflection (ℝ ∙ v)ᗮ).prod := by
  -- We prove this by strong induction on `n`, the dimension of the orthogonal complement of the
  -- fixed subspace of the endomorphism `φ`
  induction' n with n IH generalizing φ
  · -- Base case: `n = 0`, the fixed subspace is the whole space, so `φ = id`
    refine' ⟨[], rfl.le, show φ = 1 from _⟩
    have : ker (ContinuousLinearMap.id ℝ F - φ) = ⊤ := by
      rwa [Nat.zero_eq, le_zero_iff, Submodule.finrank_eq_zero,
        Submodule.orthogonal_eq_bot_iff] at hn
    symm
    ext x
    have := LinearMap.congr_fun (LinearMap.ker_eq_top.mp this) x
    simpa only [sub_eq_zero, ContinuousLinearMap.coe_sub, LinearMap.sub_apply,
      LinearMap.zero_apply] using this
  · -- Inductive step.  Let `W` be the fixed subspace of `φ`.  We suppose its complement to have
    -- dimension at most n + 1.
    let W := ker (ContinuousLinearMap.id ℝ F - φ)
    have hW : ∀ w ∈ W, φ w = w := fun w hw => (sub_eq_zero.mp hw).symm
    by_cases hn' : finrank ℝ Wᗮ ≤ n
    · obtain ⟨V, hV₁, hV₂⟩ := IH φ hn'
      exact ⟨V, hV₁.trans n.le_succ, hV₂⟩
    -- Take a nonzero element `v` of the orthogonal complement of `W`.
    haveI : Nontrivial Wᗮ := nontrivial_of_finrank_pos (by linarith [zero_le n] : 0 < finrank ℝ Wᗮ)
    obtain ⟨v, hv⟩ := exists_ne (0 : Wᗮ)
    have hφv : φ v ∈ Wᗮ := by
      intro w hw
      rw [← hW w hw, LinearIsometryEquiv.inner_map_map]
      exact v.prop w hw
    have hv' : (v : F) ∉ W := by
      intro h
      exact hv ((Submodule.mem_left_iff_eq_zero_of_disjoint W.orthogonal_disjoint).mp h)
    -- Let `ρ` be the reflection in `v - φ v`; this is designed to swap `v` and `φ v`
    let x : F := v - φ v
    let ρ := reflection (ℝ ∙ x)ᗮ
    -- Notation: Let `V` be the fixed subspace of `φ.trans ρ`
    let V := ker (ContinuousLinearMap.id ℝ F - φ.trans ρ)
    have hV : ∀ w, ρ (φ w) = w → w ∈ V := by
      intro w hw
      change w - ρ (φ w) = 0
      rw [sub_eq_zero, hw]
    -- Everything fixed by `φ` is fixed by `φ.trans ρ`
    have H₂V : W ≤ V := by
      intro w hw
      apply hV
      rw [hW w hw]
      refine' reflection_mem_subspace_eq_self _
      rw [Submodule.mem_orthogonal_singleton_iff_inner_left]
      exact Submodule.sub_mem _ v.prop hφv _ hw
    -- `v` is also fixed by `φ.trans ρ`
    have H₁V : (v : F) ∈ V := by
      apply hV
      have : ρ v = φ v := reflection_sub (φ.norm_map v).symm
      rw [← this]
      exact reflection_reflection _ _
    -- By dimension-counting, the complement of the fixed subspace of `φ.trans ρ` has dimension at
    -- most `n`
    have : finrank ℝ Vᗮ ≤ n := by
      change finrank ℝ Wᗮ ≤ n + 1 at hn
      have : finrank ℝ W + 1 ≤ finrank ℝ V :=
        Submodule.finrank_lt_finrank_of_lt (SetLike.lt_iff_le_and_exists.2 ⟨H₂V, v, H₁V, hv'⟩)
      have : finrank ℝ V + finrank ℝ Vᗮ = finrank ℝ F := V.finrank_add_finrank_orthogonal
      have : finrank ℝ W + finrank ℝ Wᗮ = finrank ℝ F := W.finrank_add_finrank_orthogonal
      linarith
    -- So apply the inductive hypothesis to `φ.trans ρ`
    

Proof state:
case neg.intro
𝕜 : Type u_1
E : Type u_2
F : Type u_3
inst✝⁵ : IsROrC 𝕜
inst✝⁴ : NormedAddCommGroup E
inst✝³ : NormedAddCommGroup F
inst✝² : InnerProductSpace 𝕜 E
inst✝¹ : InnerProductSpace ℝ F
K : Submodule 𝕜 E
inst✝ : FiniteDimensional ℝ F
n : ℕ
IH :
  ∀ (φ : F ≃ₗᵢ[ℝ] F),
    finrank ℝ ↥(LinearMap.ker (ContinuousLinearMap.id ℝ F - ↑(ContinuousLinearEquiv.mk φ.toLinearEquiv)))ᗮ ≤ n →
      ∃ l, List.length l ≤ n ∧ φ = List.prod (List.map (fun v => reflection (Submodule.span ℝ {v})ᗮ) l)
φ : F ≃ₗᵢ[ℝ] F
hn : finrank ℝ ↥(LinearMap.ker (ContinuousLinearMap.id ℝ F - ↑(ContinuousLinearEquiv.mk φ.toLinearEquiv)))ᗮ ≤ Nat.succ n
W : Submodule ℝ F := LinearMap.ker (ContinuousLinearMap.id ℝ F - ↑(ContinuousLinearEquiv.mk φ.toLinearEquiv))
hW : ∀ w ∈ W, φ w = w
hn' : ¬finrank ℝ ↥Wᗮ ≤ n
this✝ : Nontrivial ↥Wᗮ
v : ↥Wᗮ
hv : v ≠ 0
hφv : φ ↑v ∈ Wᗮ
hv' : ↑v ∉ W
x : F := ↑v - φ ↑v
ρ : F ≃ₗᵢ[ℝ] F := reflection (Submodule.span ℝ {x})ᗮ
V : Submodule ℝ F := LinearMap.ker (ContinuousLinearMap.id ℝ F - ↑(ContinuousLinearEquiv.mk (trans φ ρ).toLinearEquiv))
hV : ∀ (w : F), ρ (φ w) = w → w ∈ V
H₂V : W ≤ V
H₁V : ↑v ∈ V
this : finrank ℝ ↥Vᗮ ≤ n
⊢ ∃ l, List.length l ≤ Nat.succ n ∧ φ = List.prod (List.map (fun v => reflection (Submodule.span ℝ {v})ᗮ) l)

Next tactic:
obtain ⟨l, hl, hφl⟩ := IH (ρ * φ) this