Scribd
Upload
348 views3 pages

Affine Combination

1) An affine combination is a weighted average of vectors where the weights sum to 1. 2) The set of all affine combinations of a set of vectors forms an affine subspace. 3) A set of vectors is affinely independent if every vector can be uniquely expressed as an affine combination of the others.

Uploaded by

Raul Tevez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
348 views3 pages

Affine Combination

1) An affine combination is a weighted average of vectors where the weights sum to 1. 2) The set of all affine combinations of a set of vectors forms an affine subspace. 3) A set of vectors is affinely independent if every vector can be uniquely expressed as an affine combination of the others.

Uploaded by

Raul Tevez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

affine combination

CWoo
2013-03-21 20:42:57

Definition
Let V be a vector space over a division ring D. An affine combination of a finite
set of vectors v1 , . . . , vn V is a linear combination of the vectors

k1 v1 + + kn vn

such that ki D subject to the condition k1 + + kn = 1. In effect, an affine


combination is a weighted average of the vectors in question.
For example, v = 12 v1 + 12 v2 is an affine combination of v1 and v2 provided
that the characteristic of D is not 2. v is known as the midpoint of v1 and v2 .
More generally, if char(D) does not divide m, then
1
v= (v1 + + vm )
m
is an affine combination of the vi s. v is the barycenter of v1 , . . . , vn .

Relations with Affine Subspaces


Assume now char(D) = 0. Given v1 , . . . , vn V , we can form the set A of all
affine combinations of the vi s. We have the following
A is a finite dimensional affine subspace. Conversely, a finite di-
mensional affine subspace A is the set of all affine combinations of a
finite set of vectors in A.
Proof. Suppose A is the set of affine combinations of v1 , . . . , vn . If n = 1, then
A is a singleton {v}, so A = 0 + v, where 0 is the null subspace of V . If n > 1,
we may pick a non-zero vector v A. Define S = {a v | a A}. Then for any
s S and d D, ds = d(a v) = da + (1 d)v v. Since da + (1 d)v A,
hAffineCombinationi created: h2013-03-21i by: hCWooi version: h38033i Privacy

setting: h1i hDefinitioni h51A15i


This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0.

You can reuse this document or portions thereof only if you do so under terms that are
compatible with the CC-BY-SA license.

1
ds S. If s1 , s2 S, then 21 (s1 +s2 ) = 21 ((a1 v)+(a2 v)) = 12 (a1 +a2 )v S,
since 12 (a1 + a2 ) A. So 12 (s1 + s2 ) S. Therefore, s1 + s2 = 2( 21 (s1 + s2 )) S.
This shows that S is a vector subspace of V and that A = S + v is an affine
subspace.
Conversely, let A be a finite dimensional affine subspace. Write A = S + v,
where S is a subspace of V . Since dim(S) = dim(A) = n, S has a basis
{s1 , . . . , sn }. For each i = 1, . . . , n, define vi = nsi + v. Given a A, we have

a = s + v = k1 s1 + + kn sn + v
k1 kn
= (v1 v) + + (vn v) + v
n n
k1 kn k1 kn
= v1 + + vn + (1 )v.
n n n n
From this calculation, it is evident that a is an affine combination of v1 , . . . , vn ,
and v.
When A is the set of affine combinations of two distinct vectors v, w, we see
that A is a line, in the sense that A = S + v, a translate of a one-dimensional
subspace S (a line through 0). Every element in A has the form dv + (1 d)w,
d D. Inspecting the first part of the proof in the previous proposition, we see
that the argument involves no more than two vectors at a time, so the following
useful corollary is apparant:

A is an affine subspace iff for every pair of vectors in A, the line


formed by the pair is also in A.

Note, however, that the A in the above corollary is not assumed to be finite
dimensional.
Remarks.
If one of v1 , . . . , vn is the zero vector, then A coincides with S. In other
words, an affine subspace is a vector subspace if it contains the zero vector.
P
Given A = {k1 v1 + + kn vn | vi V, ki D, ki = 1}, the subset

{k1 v1 + + kn vn A | ki = 0}

is also an affine subspace.

Affine Independence
Since every element in a finite dimensional affine subspace A is an affine combi-
nation of a finite set of vectors in A, we have the similar concept of a spanning
set of an affine subspace. A minimal spanning set M of an affine subspace is
said to be affinely independent. We have the following three equivalent char-
acterization of an affinely independent subset M of a finite dimensional affine
subspace:

2
1. M = {v1 , . . . , vn } is affinely independent.
2. every element in A can be written as an affine combination of elements in
M in a unique fashion.
3. for every v M , N = {vi v | v 6= vi } is linearly independent.
Proof. We will proceed as follows: (1) implies (2) implies (3) implies (1).
(1) implies (2). If a A has two distinct representations k1 v1 + + kn vn =
a = r1 v1 + + rn vn , we may assume, say k1 6= r1 . So k1 r1 is invertible with
inverse t D. Then
v1 = t(r2 k2 )v2 + + t(rn kn )vn .
Furthermore,
n
X Xn n
X
t(ri ki ) = t( ri ki ) = t(1 r1 1 + k1 ) = 1.
i=2 i=2 i=2

So for any b A, we have


b = s1 v1 + + sn vn = s1 (t(r2 k2 )v2 + + t(rn kn )vn ) + + sn vn .
The sum of the coefficients is easily seen to be 1, which implies that {v2 , . . . , vn }
is a spanning set of A that is smaller than M , a contradiction.
(2) implies (3). Pick v = v1 . Suppose 0 = s2 (v2 v1 ) + + sn (vn v1 ).
Expand and we have 0 = (s2 sn )v1 + s2 v2 + + sn vn . So (1 s2
sn )v1 + s2 v2 + + sn vn = v1 A. By assumption, there is exactly one
way to express v1 , so we conclude that s2 = = sn = 0.
(3) implies (1). If M were not minimal, then some v M could be expressed
as an affine combination P of the remaining vectors in M . So suppose v1 =
k2 v2 + + kn vn . Since ki = 1, we can rewrite this as 0 = k2 (v2 v1 ) +
+ kn (vn v1 ). Since not all ki = 0, N = {v2 v1 , . . . , vn v1 } is not linearly
independent.
Remarks.
If {v1 , . . . , vn } is affinely independent set spanning A, then dim(A) = n1.
More generally, a set M (not necessarily finite) of vectors is said to be
affinely independent if there is a vector v M , such that N = {w v |
v 6= w M } is linearly independent (every finite subset of N is linearly
independent). The above three characterizations are still valid in this
general setting. However, one must be careful that an affine combination
is a finitary operation so that when we take the sum of an infinite number
of vectors, we have to realize that only a finite number of them are non-
zero.
Given any set S of vectors, the affine hull of S is the smallest affine
subspace A that contains every vector of S, denoted by Aff(S). Every
vector in Aff(S) can be written as an affine combination of vectors in S.

You might also like