Linear Combinations, Basis, Span, and Independence Math 130 Linear Algebra

Linear Combinations, Basis, Span, and Independence Math 130 Linear Algebra
D Joyce, Fall 2012 Were interested is pinning down what it means for a vector space to have a basis, and thats described in terms of the concept of linear combination. Span and independence are two more related concepts. Generally, in mathematics, you say that a linear combination of things is a sum of multiples of those things. So, for example, one linear combination of the functions f (x), g(x), and h(x) is 2f (x)+3g(x) 4h(x).
A basis for a vector space. You know some bases for vector spaces already even if you havent know them by that name. For instance, in R3 the three vectors i = (1, 0, 0) which points along the x-axis, j = (0, 1, 0) which points along the y-axis, and k = (0, 0, 1) which points along the z-axis together form the standard basis for R3 . Every vector (x, y, z) in R3 is a unique linear combination of the standard basis vectors (x, y, z) = xi + yj + zk.
Thats the one and only linear combination of i, j, and k that gives (x, y, z). (Why?) Well generally use Greek letters like and to distinguish bases (bases is the plural of basis) from other subsets of a set. Thus = {i, j, k} is the standard basis for R3 . Well want our bases to have an ordering to correspond to a coordinate system. So, for this basis of R3 , i comes before j, and j comes before k. Denition 1 (Linear combination). A linear comThe plane R2 has a standard basis of two vectors, bination of vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vk in a vector space namely, = {i, j} where i = (1, 0) and j = (0, 1). V is an expression of the form (Although were using i and j for dierent things, you can tell whats meant by context.) c1 v 1 + c2 v 2 + + ck v k There is an analogue for Rn . Its standard basis is where the ci s are scalars. More generally, if S is a = {e1 , e2 , . . . , en } set of vectors in V , not necessarily nite, then a linear combination of S refers to a linear combination where e1 = (1, 0, . . . , 0), of some nite subset of S. e2 = (0, 1, . . . , 0), ... Alternatively, we could dene a linear combinaen = (0, 0, . . . , 1). tion of vectors is a sum of scalar multiples of them. Of course, dierences are allowed, too, since negaSometimes its nice to have a notation without tions of scalars are scalars. the ellipsis (. . .), and the Kronecker delta symbol We can use linear combinations to characterize helps here. Let ij be dened by subspaces. 1 if i = j ij = Theorem 2. A nonempty subset W of a vector 0 if i = j space V is a subspace of V if and only if W is closed under linear combinations, that is, whenever Then the j th coordinate eij of the ith standard unit w1 , w2 , . . . , wk all belong to W , then so does each vector is ij . linear combination c1 w1 +c2 w2 + +cn wk of them Coordinates are related to bases. Let v be a vecbelong to W . tor in Rn . It can be uniquely written as a linear 1
combinations of the standard basis vectors v = v1 e1 + v2 e2 + + vn en
So the -coordinates of v are [v] = v1 + v2 v1 v2
and the coecients that appear in this unique linear So, for instance, the vector which has standard cocombination are the coordinates of v 3 ordinates (2, 4) has the -coordinates 1 v = (v1 , v2 , . . . , vn ). There are lots of other bases for R2 . In fact, if That leads us to the denition of for the concept of basis of a vector space. Whenever we used a you take any two vectors b1 and b2 that dont lie basis in conjunction with coordinates, well need an on a line, theyll form a basis. ordering on it, but for other purposes the ordering Math 130 Home Page at wont matter. http://math.clarku.edu/~djoyce/ma130/ Denition 3. An (ordered) subset = {b1 , b2 , . . . , bn } of a vector space V is an (ordered) basis of V if each vector v in V may be uniquely represented as a linear combination of vectors from v = v1 b1 + v2 b2 + + vn bn . For an ordered basis, the coecients in that linear combination are called the coordinates of the vector with respect to . Later on, when we study coordinates in more detail, well write the coordinates of a vector v as a column vector and give it a special notation v1 v2 [v] = . . . vn Although we have a standard basis for Rn , there are other bases. Example 4. For example, the two vectors b1 = (1, 1) and b2 = (1, 1) form a basis = (b1 , b2 ) for R2 . Each vector v = (v1 , v2 ) can be written as a unique linear combination of them, namely v = (v1 , v2 ) = 1 (v1 + v2 )b1 + 1 (v1 v2 )b2 . 2 2 2

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Linear Combinations, Basis, Span, and Independence Math 130 Linear Algebra

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Linear Combinations, Basis, Span, and Independence Math 130 Linear Algebra

combinations of the standard basis vectors v = v1 e1 + v2 e2 + + vn en

So the -coordinates of v are [v] = v1 + v2 v1 v2

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