Lecture-7: Subspace of a Vector Space

1 Exercise: Using only the vector space axioms show that 0F · u = 0V and
α · 0V = 0V for all u ∈ V and α ∈ F. Note that 0F is the zero element of the
set F (R or C) of the scalars and 0V is the zero vector of the vector space V .
2 Let V be a vector space over F.
3 A nonempty subset W of V is called a subspace of V if
i. 0 ∈ W
ii. u, v ∈ W implies u + v ∈ W
iii. u ∈ W , α ∈ F implies αu ∈ W .
4 Before giving examples we discuss an important notion.
5 Linear span:
6 Let V be a vector space over F. Let x1 , . . . , xn be vectors in V and let
c1 , . . . , cn ∈ F.
Pn
7 The vector i=1 ci xi ∈ V is called a linear combination of xi ’s and ci is
called the coefficient of xi in this linear combination.
8 Let S be a subset of a vector space V over F.
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Subspace of a Vector Space: Linear Span
1 The linear span of S is the subset of all vectors in V expressible as linear
combinations of finitely many elements in S, i.e.,
( n
)
X
L(S) = ci xi |n ≥ 1, x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ∈ S and c1 , c2 , . . . , cn ∈ F .
i=1

2 By convention the empty sum of vectors is the zero vector. Thus L(∅) = {0}.
3 We say that L(S) is spanned by S.
4 The linear span L(S) is actually a subspace of V (why?).
5 Now, if S ⊂ W ⊂ V and W is a subspace of V then L(S) ⊂ W . It follows
that L(S) is the smallest subspace of V containing S.
6 Let A be an m × n matrix over F, with rows R1 , . . . , Rm and columns
C1 , . . . , Cn .
7 The row space of A, denoted R(A), is the subspace of Fn spanned by the
rows of A.
8 The column space of A, denoted C(A), is the subspace of Fm spanned by the
columns of A.
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Linear Span
1 The null space of A, denoted N (A), is defined by N (A) = {x ∈ Fn : Ax = 0}.
2 Notice that the null space of A is the set of all solutions of the homogeneous
system (of linear equations) Ax = 0.
3 Check that (in fact, we have already done this!) N (A) is a subspace of Fn .
4 Different sets may span the same subspace.
5 For example, L({e1 , e2 }) = L({e1 , e1 + e2 }) = R2 .
6 The vector space Pn (R) is spanned by {1, t, t 2 , . . . , t n } and also by
{1, (1 + t), . . . , (1 + t)n } (why?).
7 We have introduced the notion of linear span of a subset S of a vector space.
This raises some natural questions:
i. Which vector spaces can be spanned by finite number of elements?
ii. If a vector space V = L(S) for a finite subset S of V then what is the size of
smallest such S?
8 To answer these questions we introduce the notions of linear dependence and
independence, basis and dimension of a vector space.
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Linearly Dependent and Independent subsets of V.S.
1 Linear independence:
2 Let V be a vector space.
3 A subset S ⊂ V is called linearly dependent (L.D.) if there exist distinct
elements v1 , v2 , . . . , vn ∈ S (for some n ≥ 1) and scalars α1 , α2 , . . . , αn not
all zero such that
α1 v1 + α2 v2 + . . . + αn vn = 0.

4 A set S is called linearly independent (L.I.) if it is not linearly dependent, i.e.,

for all n ≥ 1 and for all distinct v1 , v2 , . . . , vn ∈ S and scalars α1 , α2 , . . . , αn
α1 v1 + α2 v2 + . . . + αn vn = 0 =⇒ αi = 0, for all i.

5 Elements of a linearly independent set are called linearly independent.

6 Note that the empty set is linearly independent.
7 Linearly independent sets are important because each one of them gives us
data that we cannot obtain from any linear combination of the others.
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L.D. and L.I. subsets of V.S.: Remarks and Examples
1 Proposition: The following statements are true.
i. Any subset of V containing a linearly dependent set is linearly dependent.
ii. Any subset of a linearly independent set in V is linearly independent.
iii. It can be seen that S is linearly dependent ⇐⇒ either 0 ∈ S or a vector in S
is a linear combination of other vectors in S.

2 Proof: Exercise.
3 Examples:
i. Consider the vector space Rn and let S = {e1 , e2 , . . . , en }. Then S is linearly
independent. Indeed, if α1 e1 + α2 e2 + . . . + αn en = 0 for some scalars
α1 , α2 , . . . , αn then (α1 , α2 , . . . , αn ) = 0.
n t  t  t o
ii. Let S := 1 2 , 2 1 , 1 −1 ⊂ R2×1 .
Then the set S is linearly dependent since
             
2 1 1 1 2 1 0
= + . Clearly, − + = .
1 2 −1 2 1 −1 0

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L.D. and L.I. subsets of V.S.: Examples

1×4
iii. Let S denotethe
 subset of R  consisting of the vectors 
1 0 0 0 , 1 1 0 0 , 1 1 1 0 and 1 1 1 1 . Then S is
linearly independent.

 1 , α2 ,α3 , α4 ∈ R be
To see this, let α  such that   
α
1 1 0 0  0 + α2 1 1 0 0 + α3 1 1 1 0 + α4 1 1 1 1 =
0 0 0 0 .

Then α1 + α2 + α3 + α4 = 0, α2 + α3 + α4 = 0, α3 + α4 = 0 and α4 = 0,
that is, α4 = α3 = α2 = α1 = 0.

iv. Let V be the vector space of all continuous functions from R to R. Let
S = {1, cos2 t, sin2 t}. Then the relation cos2 t + sin2 t − 1 = 0 shows that S
is linearly dependent.

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L.D. and L.I. subsets of V.S.: Examples

v. Let α1 < α2 < . . . < αn be real numbers. Let

V = {f : R −→ R|f is continuous}. Consider the set
S = {e α1 x , e α2 x , . . . , e αn x }.

We show that S is linearly independent by induction on n. Let n = 1 and

βe α1 x = 0. Since e α1 x 6= 0 for any x, we get β = 0. Now assume that the
assertion is true for n − 1 and

β1 e α1 x + . . . + βn e αn x = 0.

Then β1 e (α1 −αn )x + . . . + βn e (αn −αn )x = 0.

Let x −→ ∞ to get βn = 0 (why?). Now apply induction hypothesis to get

β1 = . . . = βn−1 = 0.

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L.D. and L.I. subsets of V.S.: Examples

vi. Let P denote the vector space of all polynomials p(t) with real coefficients.

Then the set S = {1, t, t 2 , . . .} is linearly independent.

For, suppose that 0 ≤ n1 < n2 < . . . < nr and

α1 t n1 + α2 t n2 + . . . + αr t nr = 0

for certain real numbers α1 , α2 , . . . , αr .

Differentiate the left hand side polynomial of the above equation nr times to
get αr = 0. Continuing this way we see that all α1 , α2 , . . . , αr are zero.

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Bases and Dimension

1 Bases and dimension are two important notions in the study of vector spaces.
2 As we have seen already a vector space may be realized as linear span of
several sets of different sizes.
3 We study properties of the smallest sets whose linear span is the given vector
space.

Definition
A subset S of a vector space V is called a basis of V if elements of S are linearly
independent and V = L(S). A vector space V possessing a finite basis is called
finite dimensional. Otherwise V is called infinite dimensional.

4 Let {v1 , . . . , vn } be a basis of a finite dimensional vector space V . Then

every v ∈ V can be uniquely (why?) expressed as v = a1 v1 + · · · + an vn , for
scalars a1 , . . . , an .

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Bases and Dimension

1 We show that all bases of a finite dimensional vector space have same
cardinality (i.e., they contain the same number of elements).
2 For this we prove the following result.

Lemma
Let S = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vk } be a subset of a vector space V . Then any k + 1
elements in L(S) are linearly dependent.

3 Proof. Let T = {u1 , . . . , uk+1 } ⊆ L(S). Write

k
X
ui = aij vj , i = 1, . . . , k + 1.
j=1

4 Consider the (k + 1) × k matrix A = (aij ).

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Bases and Dimension: Proof continues...

1 Since A has more rows than columns there exists (why?) a nonzero row
vector c = [c1 , . . . , ck+1 ] such that cA = (At c t )t = 0, i.e., for j = 1, . . . k
k+1
X
ci aij = 0.
i=1

2 We now have
k+1
X k+1
X k
X k X
X k+1
ci ui = ci ( aij vj ) = ( ci aij )vj = 0,
i=1 i=1 j=1 j=1 i=1

completing the proof.

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Bases and Dimension

Theorem
Any two bases of a finite dimensional vector space have same number of elements.

Proof.
1 Suppose S and T are bases of a finite dimensional vector space V .
2 Suppose |S| < |T |. Since T ⊂ L(S) = V , T is linearly dependent.
3 This is a contradiction. Similarly, |T | < |S| also gives a contradiction.
4 Hence |T | = |S|.

Definition
The number of elements in a basis of a finite-dimensional vector space V is called
the dimension of V . It is denoted by dim V .

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