MATHEMATICS-II (Lecture-8)

Subspaces & Linear Span

P. Danumjaya

Department of Mathematics
BITS-Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus

January 31, 2024

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Theorem 2

Prove that the intersection of two subspaces is a subspace.

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Theorem

Let V1 and V2 be subspaces of a vector space.

Then V1 ∪ V2 is a subspace if and only if either V1 ⊆ V2 or V2 ⊆ V1 .

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Linear combination

Let V be a vector space and v1 , v2 , . . . , vn are in V .

Then, by a linear combination of v1 , v2 , . . . , vn , we mean an element in V

of the form
α1 v1 + α2 v2 + · · · + αn vn
with αj ∈ R, j = 1, 2, . . . , n.

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Example 1

Consider the vectors u = (1, 2, −1) and v = (6, 4, 2) in R3 .

We observe that w1 = (9, 2, 7) is a linear combination of u and v .

That is
(9, 2, 7) = α1 (1, 2, −1) + α2 (6, 4, 2)

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That is
(9, 2, 7) = α1 (1, 2, −1) + α2 (6, 4, 2).
This gives α1 = −3, α2 = 2.

Thus
w1 = −3 u + 2 v .
Note 1 : w2 = (4, −1, 8) is not a linear combination of u and v .

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Span

Let S be a subset of V .

Then the set of all linear combinations of elements of S is called the span
of S, and is denoted by span S.

Thus, for S ⊆ V , v ∈ span S if and only if there exist v1 , v2 , . . . , vn in S

and scalars α1 , α2 , . . . , αn such that

v = α1 v1 + α2 v2 + . . . + αn vn .

As a convention, span of the empty set is taken to be the singleton set

{0}.

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To check the given vectors v1 , v2 , · · · , vn span the vector space V :

Choose an arbitrary vector v in V .

If v is a linear combination of the given vectors then the given vectors

span V .

Otherwise they do not span V .

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Example 2

Let V be the vector space in R3 and let

v1 = (2, 2, 3), v2 = (−1, −2, 1), and v3 = (0, 1, 0).

Check v1 , v2 and v3 span V or not?

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Solution

Let v = (a, b, c) be any vector in R3 , where a, b and c are arbitrary real

numbers.

If v1 , v2 and v3 span V then we must find out constants α, β and γ such

that
αv1 + βv2 + γv3 = v .

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Thus, we have

α(2, 2, 3) + β(−1, −2, 1) + γ(0, 1, 0) = (a, b, c).

This leads to the linear system of equations

2α − β = a
2α − 2β + γ = b
3α + β = c.

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Solving the equations, we obtain
a+c 2c − 3a 5b − 8a + 2c
α= , β= and γ = .
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We obtained the solution for every choice of a, b and c.

Therefore the vectors v1 , v2 and v3 span R3 .

(or) span {v1 , v2 , v3 } = R3 .

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Example 3

Let V be the vector space in P2 and let

S = {t 2 + 1, t 2 + t, t + 1}.

Check S span P2 or not?

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Solution

Let a0 + a1 t + a2 t 2 be any polynomial in P2 , where a0 , a1 and a2 are any

real numbers.

If S spans P2 then we must find out constants α, β and γ such that

a0 + a1 t + a2 t 2 = α(t 2 + 1) + β(t 2 + t) + γ(t + 1).

Equating coefficients on both sides, we get

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 α + β = a2
α + γ = a0
β + γ = a1 .

Solving the equations, we obtain

a2 + a0 − a1 a2 − a0 + a1 a0 + a1 − a2
α= , β= , and γ = .
2 2 2
Therefore, S spans P2 .

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Example 4

Let V be the vector space in P2 and let

S = {t 2 + 2t + 1, t 2 + 2}.

Check S span P2 or not?

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Solution

S does not span P2 .

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Example 5

Every vector v = (a, b, c) in R3 is expressible as a linear combination of

the standard basis vectors.

e1 = (1, 0, 0), e2 = (0, 1, 0), and e3 = (0, 0, 1).

We can write

v = (a, b, c) = a(1, 0, 0) + b(0, 1, 0) + c(0, 0, 1).

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Example 6

Consider the linear homogeneous system AX = 0 where

 
1 0 1 0
 1 2 3 1 
A=  2 1 3 1 .


1 1 2 1

Find the set of vectors spanning the solution space of AX = 0.

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Solution : The reduced row echelon form of the augmented matrix is
 . 
1 0 1 0 .. 0
 . 
 0 1 1 1/2 .. 0 
 
 . .
 0
 0 0 1/2 .. 0 

.
0 0 0 1/2 .. 0

The general solution is x1 = −s, x2 = −s, x3 = s, x4 = 0, where s is any

scalar.

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Therefore, the vector  

 −1 
−1
 
 
 1 
 
0
 

span the solution space.

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Theorem

Let V be a vector space, and S ⊆ V .

Then span S is a subspace of V , and span S is the smallest subspace

containing S.

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Sum of subsets

Let V be a vector space, u ∈ V , and E , E1 , E2 be subsets of V .

Then We define the following:

u + E := {u + v : v ∈ E },

E1 + E2 := {u1 + u2 : u1 ∈ E1 , u2 ∈ E2 }.
The set E1 + E2 is called the sum of the subsets E1 and E2 .

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Theorem

Suppose V1 and V2 are subspaces of V .

Then V1 + V2 is a subspace of V .

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Proof.

Let x, y ∈ V1 + V2 and α ∈ R.

Then, there exists x1 , y1 ∈ V1 and x2 , y2 ∈ V2 such that

x = x1 + x2 , y = y1 + y2 .

Hence,

x + y = (x1 + x2 ) + (y1 + y2 ) = (x1 + y1 ) + (x2 + y2 ) ∈ V1 + V2 .

Similarly, we show that

αx = α(x1 + x2 ) = (αx1 + αx2 ) ∈ V1 + V2 .

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