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

The document discusses linear combinations, bases, span, and independence in vector spaces. It defines a linear combination as a sum of scalar multiples of vectors. A basis is an ordered set of vectors such that each vector in the space can be uniquely written as a linear combination of the basis vectors. The span of a set of vectors is the set of all possible linear combinations of those vectors. Independence means that only the zero linear combination results from the vectors.

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Cody Sage
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40 views

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

The document discusses linear combinations, bases, span, and independence in vector spaces. It defines a linear combination as a sum of scalar multiples of vectors. A basis is an ordered set of vectors such that each vector in the space can be uniquely written as a linear combination of the basis vectors. The span of a set of vectors is the set of all possible linear combinations of those vectors. Independence means that only the zero linear combination results from the vectors.

Uploaded by

Cody Sage
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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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