MA-106 Linear Algebra

Ananthnarayan H.

Department of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Powai, Mumbai - 76

20th January, 2015

D2 - Lecture 8

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 1 / 13

Instructions for the Quiz
Short Quiz for 3 marks will be held on Thursday, 22/01/15 from
8:30 - 8:40 PM.
You should take the quiz in your assigned tutorial section. Not
doing so will result in a 0 on the quiz.
If you are still unaware of your assigned section, please email me.
No EXTRA time will be given to students who show up late in
the Quiz.
Any such requests, failure to comply with tutors or instructions
will result in a 0 on the Quiz.
Any instances of copying will result in a 0 on the quiz for all the
students involved and will be reported to the Academic
Disciplinary committee.
There will be no make ups for the short quizzes.

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 2 / 13

Recall: Vector Spaces

• A vector space is a triple (V, +, ·)

which is closed under + and ·
• W is a subspace of V if W is a non-empty subset of V
which is also closed under linear combinations.
• Span{v1 , . . . , vn }
= {v = a1 v1 + · · · + an vn , for scalars a1 , . . . , an }.
• If V = Rm , then
v is in Span{v1 , . . . , vn }
⇔ Ax = v is consistent,
where A = v1 · · · vn .
• In particular, with n = m,
A is invertible ⇔ Span{v1 , . . . , vn } = Rn .

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 3 / 13

Linear Span: Remarks
Remarks/Examples:
1 Span{0} = {0}.
2 If v 6= 0 is a vector, Span{v} = {a · v, for scalars a}.
Goemetrically (for V = Rm ):
Span{v} = line in the direction of v passing through 0.
   
−1 0
3 Span , = R2 .
1 1
4 The columns of the n × n identity matrix I, e1 , . . . , en span Rn .
5 If A is m × n, then Span{A1 , . . . , An } = C(A).
6 If v1 , . . . , vk are the special solutions of A,
then Span {v1 , . . . , vk } = N (A).
Remark: All of the above are subspaces.

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 4 / 13

Linear Span: Example
 

T 2
Q: Is v = 4 3 5 in Span{v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 }, where: v1 = 2,
      2
4 6 4
v2 = 5, v3 = 7 and v4 = 6?
3 5 2
If yes, write v as a linear combination of {v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 }.


Let A = v1 · · · v4 . The question can be rephrased as:
Q: Is v in C(A), i.e., is Ax = v solvable? If yes, find a solution.
By R2 7→ R2 − R1 , R3 7→ R3 − R1 , followed by R3 7→ R3 + R2 .
[A|v] =
   
2 4 6 4|a 2 4 6 4 | a
2 5 7 6 | b  → [U |w] = 0 1 1 2 | b−a 
2 3 5 2|c 0 0 0 0 | c + b − 2a

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 5 / 13

Linear Span: Example
   
2 4 6 4 a
Thus Ax = 2 5 7 6 x = b  is solvable ⇔ 2a − b − c = 0
  
2 3 5 2 c
(C(A) is a plane!) ⇒ v is in Span{v1 , . . . , v4 }, (and, for example,

T
4 3 4 is not in it).
Solve
 Ax = v: Convert U to the  rowreduced form R: [U |w]
2 4 6 4 | a 2 4 6 4 | 4
= 0 1 1 2 | b − a  = 0 1 1 2 | −1
0 0 0 0 | c + b −  2a 0 0 0 0 | 0
1 0 1 −2 | 4
→ 0 1 1 2 | −1 by R1 7→ R1 − 4R2 , R1 7→ R1 /2.

0 0 0 0 | 0

T
Particular solution: 4 −1 0 0 and v = 4v1 + (−1)v2 .

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 6 / 13

Linear Independence: Example
       
2 4 6 4
With v1 = 2, v2 = 5, v3 = 7 and v4 = 6
2 3 5 2
Observe: v3 = v1 + v2 and v4 = 2v1 − 2v2 . Hence v3 and v4 are in
Span{v1 , v2 }. Therefore, Span{v1 , v2 } =
Span{v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 } = C(A) = the plane P : (2x − y − z = 0).
Q: Is the span of two vectors in R3 always a plane?
A: Not always. If v is a multiple of w, then Span{v, w} = Span{w},
which is a line through the origin or zero.
Q: If v and w are not on the same line through the origin?
A: Yes. v, w are examples of the linearly independent vectors.

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 7 / 13

Linear Independence: Definition

The vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vn in a vector space V , are linearly

independent if
a1 v1 + a2 v2 + · · · + an vn = 0 ⇒ a1 = 0, a2 = 0, . . ., an = 0 .
Observe: When V = Rm , if A = v1 v2 · · · vn , then

v1 , v2 , . . . , vn are linearly independent ⇔

Ax = x1 v1 + x2 v2 + · · · + xn vn = 0 has only the trivial solution
⇔ N (A) = 0.
The vectors v1 , . . . , vn are linearly dependent if they are not linearly
independent. If V = Rm , this happens ⇔


Ax = v1 · · · vn x = 0 has non-trivial solutions.

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 8 / 13

Linear Independence: Remarks
Remarks/Examples:
1 The zero vector 0 is not linearly independent.
2 If v 6= 0, then it is linearly independent.
3 v, w are not linearly independent ⇔ one is a multiple of the other
⇔ (for V = Rm ) they lie on the same line through the origin.
4 More generally, v1 , . . . , vn are not linearly independent ⇔ one of
the vi ’s can be written as a linear combination of the others, i.e.,
vi is in Span{vj : j = 1, . . . n, j 6= i}.
5 Let A be m × n. Then rank(A) = n ⇔ N (A) = 0
⇔ A1 , · · · , An are linearly independent.
In particular, if A is n × n, A is invertible ⇔ A1 , · · · , An are
linearly independent.

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 9 / 13

Linear Independence: Example
Example:
  Are thevectors v1 ,
v2 ,
v3 , v4 linearlyindependent,
 where
2 4 6 4
v1 = 2, v2 = 5, v3 = 7 and v4 = 6?
2 3 5  2 

1 0 1 −2
For A = v1 · · · v4 , reduced form R = 0 1 1 2 .
0 0 0 0
A has only 2 pivots ⇒ N (A) 6= 0, so v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 are not
independent. A non-trivial linear combination which is zero is
v1 + v2 + (−1)v3 + (0)v4 .
More generally, if v
1 , . . . , vn are vectors in Rm , then
A = v1 · · · vn is m × n. If m < n, then rank(A) < n ⇒
N (A) 6= 0. Thus
In Rm , any set with more than m vectors is linearly dependent.

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 10 / 13

Basis: Example

T
T
T
Let v1 = 2 2 2 , v2 = 4 5 3 , v3 = 6 7 5 and

T
v4 = 4 6 2 . Then v3 = v1 + v2 and v4 = 2v1 − 2v2 ⇒
Span{v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 } = Span{v1 , v2 } ⇒ we only need v1 and v2 to
span C(A), v3 and v4 are unnecessary.
Observe:
1 The span of only v1 or only v2 is a line, and C(A) is a plane ⇒
both v1 and v2 are necessary to span C(A), i.e.,
{v1 , v2 } is a minimal spanning set for C(A).
2 v1 and v2 are linearly independent and span C(A).
3 If v is in C(A) = Span{v1 , v2 }, then v1 , v2 , v are linearly
dependent, i.e.,
{v1 , v2 } is a maximal linearly independent set in C(A).
This is an example of a basis of C(A).

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 11 / 13

Basis: Definition
A subset B = {v1 , . . . , vn }, of a vector space V , is basis of V , if it is
linearly independent and Span(B) = V .
Equivalent conditions for a basis:
A subset B of V is a basis of V
⇔ B is a maximal linearly independent set in V
⇔ B is a minimal spanning set of V .
Remarks/Examples:
• Every vector space V has a basis.
• 
By convention,
   the empty set is a basis for V = {0}.
−1 0
• , is a basis for R2 .
1 1
• {e1 , . . . , en } is a basis for Rn , called the standard basis.
• Basis depends on the set of scalars!
A basis for C is {1, i} over R and {1} over C.

Ananthnarayan H. D2 - Lecture 8 20th January, 2015 12 / 13