Test 1 – Computational Linear Algebra (2021)1

duration: 1 hr; points: 20

Problem I (points: 1+2+4+3+5= 15)

Let V = (V, +, ·) be a finite-dimensional vector space over R and U be a subspace of V. For v ∈ V, let [v ] be
a subset of V defined as 
[v ] = x ∈ V : x − v ∈ U .

(i) Argue why [v ] is nonempty for all v ∈ V.


Let W be the collection such sets, i.e., W = [v ] : v ∈ V . Note that the elements of W are subsets of V.
(ii) Consider the special case where V = R2 and U = {x = (x1 , x2 ) : x1 = x2 }. Give the geometric descriptions
of [0] and W in this case.
For λ ∈ R and [u ], [v ] ∈ W, define the operations ◦ : R × W → W and + : W × W → W as follows:

λ ◦ [u ] := [λ · x ] and [u ] + [v ] := [x + y ], (1)

where x ∈ [u ] and y ∈ [v ] are arbitrary.

(iii) Show that the operations in (1) are well-defined in that they do not depend on the choice of x and y
as long as x ∈ [u ] and y ∈ [v ].
(iv) It can be shown that W = (W, +, ◦) is itself a vector space over R. Verify the following commutative
and distributive properties:

(a) ∀ [u ], [v ] ∈ W : [u ] + [v ] = [v ] + [u ].


(b) ∀ [u ], [v ] ∈ W, a ∈ R : a ◦ [u ] + [v ] = a ◦ [u ] + a ◦ [v ].

Show that the identity element of W is [0], where 0 is the identity element of V.
(v) Show that the dimension of W is dim(V) − dim(U). (hint: consider the complementary subspace of U).

Problem II (points: 3+2 = 5)


Let F denote the collection of real-valued functions on the interval [0, 1], i.e., F = f : [0, 1] → R . Assuming
F to be a vector space (with the natural vector space operations on F), show that F cannot be finite-
dimensional. What can we say about the dimension of the vector space of functions f : {0, 1} → R?

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