University of Birmingham

School of Mathematics
Vectors, Geometry and Linear Algebra
VGLA

Problem Sheet 4

Remember that there are practise questions under the materials section for each week.

SUM Q1. (i) Assume that V = R4 and

U = h(1, 2, 3, 4), (3, 4, 5, 6), (4, 6, 8, 10), (6, 5, 4, 3)i
= span{(1, 2, 3, 4), (3, 4, 5, 6), (4, 6, 8, 10), (6, 5, 4, 3)}.
Find a basis for U and write down dim U .
(ii) Let V = Rn with n ≥ 3 be a real vector space. Which of the following subsets of V are subspaces
of V ? In each case prove your assertion.
(a) A = {(x1 , x2 , x3 , . . . , xn ) | 3x1 + 2x2 + x3 = 0};
(b) B = {(x1 , x2 , x3 , . . . , xn ) | Q
3x1 + 2x2 + x3 = 1};
n
(c) C = {(x1 , x2 , x3 , . . . , xn ) | i=1 xi = 0};
(d) D = {(x1 , x2 , x3 , . . . , xn ) | x1 − x2 = x2 − x3 }; and
(e) E = A ∩ B.
(iii) Suppose that V = C3 . Determine whether
3
X
W = {(z1 , z2 , z3 ) ∈ V | Re(zi ) = 0}
i=1
is a subspace of V .
(iv) Give an example of subspaces of V = R2 to show that a union of subspaces A and B of V need not
be a subspace.

SUM Q2. (i) Suppose that V is a vector space over R of dimension n ≥ 3 and assume that {v1 , . . . , vn } is a
basis for V .
(a) Let λ ∈ R \ {0} and define
Uλ = hλv1 + v2 , v3 , . . . , vn i = span{λv1 + v2 , v3 , . . . , vn }
and
Wλ = hλv1 + v3 , v2 , v4 , . . . , vn i = span{λv1 + v3 , v2 , v4 , . . . , vn }.
(So Uλ misses out v1 and v2 but has λv1 + v2 and Wλ misses out v1 and v3 but has λv1 + v3 .)
Show that dim Uλ = dim Wλ = n − 1 and that Uλ 6= Wλ .
(b) Let ( n )
X Xn
U= λi vi ∈ V | λi ∈ R and λi = 0 .
i=1 i=1
Show that U is a subspace of V and calculate dim U .

1
 2

Q3. Suppose that V is a vector space over R of dimension n ≥ 1. Assume that U1 , . . . , Uk is a finite collection
of subspaces of V with dim Uj ≤ n − 1 for 1 ≤ j ≤ k. Show that
k
[
Ui 6= V.
i=1
Sketch:

(i) Use induction on dim V . What is the inductive hypothesis?

(ii) Why is the result true when n = 1?
(iii) Assume that n ≥ 2. Show that there are an infinite number of subspaces of V of dimension n − 1.
You could do this by showing that Uλ 6= Uµ for λ, µ ∈ R with Uλ as defined in Q2(i).
(iv) Using (c), let W be a subspace of dimension n − 1 with W 6∈ {U1 , . . . Uk }.
(v) Show that for each 1 ≤ j ≤ k, W ∩ Uj is a subspace of W of dimension at most n − 2.
Sk Sk
(vi) Suppose that V = i=1 Ui . Show that W = i=1 (W ∩ Ui ), apply the inductive hypothesis and
conclude the proof.