Test-1 Solutions

Problem I.
(i) By definition, v − v = 0 ∈ U. Thus, v ∈ [v ] for all v ∈ V.
(ii) For the case V = R2 and U = {(x1 , x2 ) : x1 = x2 }, [0] = {x ∈ V : x ∈ U} = U, which is
a line though the origin with slope 1. For v = (v1 , v2 ),

[v ] = (x1 , x2 ) : x1 − x2 = v1 − v2 ,

which is a line parallel to [0] and x2 -intercept v2 − v1 .

(iii) Let x , x 0 ∈ [u ] and λ ∈ R. We need to show that [λx ] = [λx 0 ] as elements of W.
Note that [u ] = [v ] if and only if u − v ∈ U (this can be shown in a couple of lines).
However, since x − x 0 ∈ U and U is a subspace,

λx − λx 0 = λ(x − x 0 ) ∈ U.

Hence, [λx ] = [λx 0 ].

On the other hand, let x , x 0 ∈ [u ] and y , y 0 ∈ [v ]. As explained above, to show that
[x + y ] = [x 0 + y 0 ], if suffices to show that (x + y ) − (x 0 + y 0 ) ∈ U. However, since
x − x 0 ∈ U and y − y 0 ∈ U and U is a subspace, we have

(x + y ) − (x 0 + y 0 ) = (x − x 0 ) + (y − y 0 ) ∈ U.

(iv) The commutative property (a) follows immediately from the commutativity
of addition in V and the distributive property (b) follows from the corresponding
distributive property for V.
The additive element of W is [0] where 0 is the identity element of W. This is simply
because, for all v ∈ V,
[v ] + [0] = [v + 0] = [v ].

(v) If U = {0}, then it is clear that every element of W can be identified with a unique
element of V. Hence dim(W) = dim(V).
Now, suppose that dim(V) = n and 1 ¶ k = dim(U) ¶ n . Let e 1 , . . . , e k be a basis of
U. Extend this to a basis of V, which we denote as e 1 , . . . , e k , e k +1 , . . . , e n . We claim
that [e k +1 ], . . . , [e n ] is a basis of W, whereby dim(W) = n − k .

1
We will establish linear independence and spanning property of [e k +1 ], . . . , [e n ].
Suppose that
ck +1 [e k +1 ] + · · · + cn [e n ] = [0].
Then we must have ck +1 e k +1 + · · · + cn e n ∈ U, i.e., there must exist c1 , . . . , ck such
that
ck +1 e k +1 + · · · + cn e n = c1 e 1 + · · · + ck e k .
By linear independence, we get ck +1 = · · · = cn = 0. This establishes linear indepen-
dence of [e k +1 ], . . . , [e n ].
For the spanning property, note that any v ∈ V can be written as

v = u + ck +1 e k +1 + · · · + cn e n ,

where u ∈ U and ck +1 , . . . , cn ∈ R. That is,

v − (ck +1 e k +1 + · · · + cn e n ) ∈ U,

so that [v ] = [ck +1 e k +1 + · · · + cn e n ] = ck +1 [e k +1 ] + · · · + cn [e n ].

Problem II.
Let F be the collection of functions f : [0, 1] → R. For every n ¾ 1, we can construct
functions f1 , . . . , fn that are linearly independent. This means that F cannot be finite
dimensional. For example, for k = 1, . . . , n define fk (x ) = 1 for x ∈ [(k − 1)/n , k /n )
and fk (x ) = 0 otherwise. Then it is easy to check that

c1 f (x ) + · · · + cn fn (x ) = 0 =⇒ c1 = · · · = cn = 0.

The space of functions of the form f : {0, 1} → R is two-dimensional. This is because

the functions f , g : {0, 1} → R defined as f (0) = 1, f (1) = 0 and g (0) = 0, g (1) = 1 form
a basis for this space.