Chapter 1

Basic Notions

1. Vector spaces
A vector space V is a collection of objects, called vectors (denoted in this
book by lowercase bold letters, like v), along with two operations, addition
of vectors and multiplication by a number (scalar) 1 , such that the following
8 properties (the so-called axioms of a vector space) hold:
The first 4 properties deal with the addition:
1. Commutativity: v + w = w + v for all v, w 2 V ;

2. Associativity: (u + v) + w = u + (v + w) for all u, v, w 2 V ;

3. Zero vector: there exists a special vector, denoted by 0 such that

v + 0 = v for all v 2 V ;

4. Additive inverse: For every vector v 2 V there exists a vector w 2 V

such that v + w = 0. Such additive inverse is usually denoted as
v;
The next two properties concern multiplication:
5. Multiplicative identity: 1v = v for all v 2 V ;
1We need some visual distinction between vectors and other objects, so in this book we use
bold lowercase letters for vectors and regular lowercase letters for numbers (scalars). In some (more
advanced) books Latin letters are reserved for vectors, while Greek letters are used for scalars; in
even more advanced texts any letter can be used for anything and the reader must understand
from the context what each symbol means. I think it is helpful, especially for a beginner to have
some visual distinction between dierent objects, so a bold lowercase letters will always denote a
vector. And on a blackboard an arrow (like in ~v ) is used to identify a vector.

A question arises,
How one can memorize the above properties? And the answer is that one does
not need to, see below!