General Vector Spaces (ctd) Math 1850U

Spanning sets (Section 4.3 continued)

Recall: Last day, we introduced the concepts of subspace and of linear combi-
nations.

Definition: If S = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vr } is a set of vectors in a vector space V ,

then the subspace W of V consisting of all the linear combinations of the
vectors in S is called the space spanned by v1 , v2 , . . . , vr , and we say that
the vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vr span W . To indicate that W is the space spanned
by the vectors in the set S, we write

W = span(S) or W = span{v1 , v2 , . . . , vr }.

NOTE: It is impossible to span Rn with fewer than n vectors!

Example: Which of the following statements are true?

(a) Five vectors must span R3 .

(b) It is possible that a set of 5 vectors spans R4 .

(c) It is possible that a set of 5 vectors spans R7 .

Example: What is span{e1 , e2 , e3 }?

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Example: Describe the space spanned by the vector (0, 1, 1) in R3 .

Example: Describe the space spanned by the vectors (1, 0, 0) and (0, 1, 0)
in R3 .

Procedure: How do we actually test if a given set of vectors spans a given

space?

1. Write a general element in the space as a linear combination of the

given vectors.

2. Set up the corresponding linear system.

3. Check that there is indeed at least one solution to this system

(a) Row reduce to check if the system is consistent—if so, then these
vectors span the space.
(b) If the coefficient matrix A is square, you could check that det(A) 6=
0—if so, then these vectors span the space.

2
        
2 0 1 0 −3 0 0 5
Example: If v1 = , v2 = , v3 = , and v4 = ,
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
show that {v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 } does NOT span the set of all 2 × 2 matrices.

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Example: Determine whether the vectors v1 = (2, 1, −3), v2 = (0, −5, 1)
and v3 = (6, −7, −9) span R3 .

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Example: Suppose that in testing whether a given set of four vectors spans
R3 , we set up the appropriate system in matrix form, and upon row reducing,
end up with the following result:
 
1 0 0 0 a
 0 1 0 0 b − 2a  .
0 0 0 1 5c − 2a

Can we conclude that the original set of four vectors spans R3 ?

Theorem. If S = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vr } and S 0 = {w1 , w2 , . . . , wk } are two sets of

vectors in a vector space V , then span{v1 , v2 , . . . , vr } = span{w1 , w2 , . . . , wk }
if and only if each vector in S is a linear combination of those in S 0 and each
vector in S 0 is a linear combination of those in S.

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Linear Independence (Section 4.4)
Definition: If S = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vr } is a set of vectors in a vector space V ,
then S is said to be a linearly independent set if no vector in S can be
expressed as a linear combination of the others. A set that is not linearly
independent is said to be linearly dependent.

Example: By inspection, show that the set of vectors

v1 = (1, 0, −1), v2 = (5, 2, 8), v3 = (6, 2, 7)

is linearly dependent.

Example: The standard unit vectors in Rn , e1 , e2 , . . . , en , form a linearly

independent set, so we can’t write any of these vectors as a linear combination
of the others. Verify that in R3 , you cannot write e3 as a linear combination
of e1 and e2 .

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Theorem. A nonempty set S = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vr } in a vector space V is lin-
early independent if and only if the only solution to the vector equation

k1 v1 + k2 v2 + · · · + kr vr = 0

is k1 = 0, k2 = 0, . . . , kr = 0.

Procedure: How do we actually test if a given set of vectors is linearly

independent?

1. Write the linear combination of the given vectors equal to the zero
vector.

2. Set up the corresponding linear system.

3. Check that there is only the trivial solution to this system.

(a) Row reduce to check—if the only solution is the trivial one, then
these vectors are independent.
(b) If the coefficient matrix A is square, you could check that det(A) 6=
0—if so, then these vectors are independent.

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 Example: Determine whether the P2 vectors given below form a linearly
dependent or linearly independent set

p1 = 1 − x + x2 , p2 = 1 − x2 , p3 = 1 + x

Application:
Looking ahead to your second year Differential Equations course, you’ll learn
about something called the Wronskian, which is a special determinant that
helps you to determine whether a given set of functions is linearly independent.