1 6 A P R I L 2 0 13

L I N E A R A L G & M U LT I VA R I A B L E C A L C §5
5.1 Basis and Dimension

Definition 1 (Basis). A basis for a subspace V (of Rn ) is a set of vectors

v 1 , . . . , v k such that:

• the vectors v 1 , . . . , v k are linearly independent

• the span of v 1 , . . . , v k is V •

Every subspace has a basis. A subspace may have many possible bases,
but all such bases must have the same number of elements. The number
of elements in a basis gives a measure of size.

Definition 2 (Dimension). The dimension of a subspace V (of Rn ) is the

number of elements in any basis for V . •

We have already seen basis/dimension when we were given a set of

vectors and selected a subset that is linearly independent and has the
same span as the original set of vectors.
Recall that null spaces and column spaces are subspaces, and that
every subspace may be expressed as a null space of a matrix or as a column
space of a matrix. Given any subspace V , we can find a matrix A such
that C(A) = V , and we can find a matrix B such that N(B) = V . For
the remainder, we will focus on converting between “parametric form”
V = C(A) and “implicit form” V = N(B) for a subspace V . In addition,
since we now know about bases, we will require that the “parametric
form” is minimal, that is, given by independent vectors. We may also ask
for a minimal “implicit form”, but this won’t be stressed as much as the
minimality of the “parametric form”.

5.2 Find Basis for a Subspace

Example 1. Find a basis for:

−6 −4 −14 −6 −4 −14
span([ −3 ], [ 3 ], [ 3 ]) = C([ −3 3 3 ]) •
−19 8 −3 −19 8 −3
2

Solution. The reduced row echelon form of the matrix

⎡⎢ −6 −4 −14⎤⎥
⎢⎢ −3 3 3 ⎥⎥⎥
⎢⎢
⎣−19 8 −3 ⎥⎦

is
⎡⎢1 0 1⎤⎥
⎢⎢0 1 2⎥⎥
⎢⎢ ⎥
⎣0 0 0⎥⎦
so
−6 −4
{[ −3 ], [ 3 ]}
−19 8

is a basis for the given span. ∎

Example 2. Find a basis for N(B) where B is:

⎡⎢1 1 1 0⎤⎥
⎢⎢1 1 0 1⎥⎥ •
⎢⎢ ⎥
⎣1 0 1 1⎥⎦

Solution. The reduced row echelon form of B is

⎡⎢1 0 0 2 ⎤⎥
⎢⎢0 1 0 −1⎥⎥
⎢⎢ ⎥
⎣0 0 1 −1⎥⎦

so N(B) = N(rref (B)) is given as the solutions of

⎧
⎪
⎪ x1 + 2x4 = 0
⎪
⎪
⎨ x2 − x4 = 0
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩ x3 − x4 = 0

which are:
x1 −2x 4 −2
[ xx23 ] = [ x4
x4 ] = x4 [ 1 ]
1
x4 x4 1

Finally, a basis for the N(B) is

−2
{[ 1 ]}
1 ∎
1
 3

5.3 Find Equations for a Subspace

Example 3. Find a matrix B so that the null space N(B) is:

−6 −4 −14 −6 −4 −14
span([ −3 ], [ 3 ], [ 3 ]) = C([ −3 3 3 ]) •
−19 8 −3 −19 8 −3

Solution. The following string of equalities determines one possible

choice for B:

−6 −4 −14 b1 −6 −4 −14 b 1
C([ −3 3 3 ]) = {[ b2 ] ∣ [ −3 3 3 ∣ b 2 ] consistent} ↓ RREF
−19 8 −3 b3 −19 8 −3 b 3
b1 101 − 101 b 1 − 152 b 2
= {[ b2 ] ∣ [ 0 1 2 ∣ − 101 b1 + 15 b2 ] consistent}
b3 0 0 0 − 11
10 b 1 − 62
15 b 2 +b 3
b1
= {[ b2 ] 10 b1 − 62
∣ − 11 15 b2 + b3 = 0}
b3
b1 b1
= {[ b2 ] ∣ [ − 1110 − 62
15 1 ][ b 2 ] = [0]}
b3 b3
= N([ − 1011 62 1 ])
− 15

Thus we may take:

B = [ − 1110 − 62
15 1 ] ∎

Example 4. Find a matrix B with the least possible number of rows so

that:
−6 −4 −14
N(B) = N([ −3 3 3 ]) •
−19 8 −3

Solution. As calculated earlier, the reduced row echelon form of the

matrix
−6 −4 −14
[ −3 3 3 ]
−19 8 −3

is
101
[0 1 2]
000

so we may take
B = [ 10 01 12 ] ∎
4

5.4 Examples

Example 5 (Levandosky 11.11). Find a basis for the set of solutions of:

0 = x1 + x2 + x3 − x4 − x5 − x6
0 = 2x1 + 2x2 − x3 + x4 + 2x5 + x6
0 = −x1 − x2 + 2x3 − 2x4 − 3x5 − 2x6 •

Example 6 (Levandosky 12.12). Evaluate each of the following assertions

as always true, sometimes true, or never true.

(a) A set of 3 vectors in R4 is linearly independent.

(b) A set of 3 vectors in R4 spans R4 .

(c) A set of 4 vectors in R3 is linearly independent.

(d) A set of 4 vectors in R3 spans R3 .

(e) A set of 4 vectors which spans R4 is linearly independent.

(f ) A set of 4 linearly independent vectors in R4 spans R4 . •

Example 7 (Levandosky 12.13). Determine whether each of the following

statements is true or false.

(a) For a subspace V with dimension d, any d vectors which span V

form a basis for V .

(b) For a subspace V with dimension d, any d vectors which are

linearly independent form a basis for V .

(c) If {v 1 , . . . , v k } span a subspace V , then V is k-dimensional.

(d) If {v 1 , . . . , v k } is a basis for a subspace V , then any k linear com-

binations of v 1 through v k forms a basis for V .

(e) If {v 1 , . . . , v k } is a basis for a subspace V , then every basis for V

consists of k linear combinations of v 1 through v k . •