Math 115a: Selected Solutions For HW 2: October 15, 2005
Math 115a: Selected Solutions For HW 2: October 15, 2005
Solution: In order to prove equality of two sets, we need to prove mutual inclu-
sion.
⊆: Let v ∈ span(S1 ∪ S2 ). Then v can be written as a linear combination of
vectors in S1 ∪ S2 , i.e. X X
v= ai xi + bj yj ,
i j
where ai , bj ∈ F and xi ∈ S1 , yj ∈ S2 . (We note that P the two sums are finite,
although
P we will not use this fact in this proof.) Since i ai xi ∈ span(S1 ), and
j bj yj ∈ span(S2 ), we conclude that v ∈ span(S1 ) + span(S2 ).
1
where ai , bj ∈ F and xi ∈ S1 , yj ∈ S2 . This is clearly a linear combination of
vectors from S1 ∪ S2 . Therefore v ∈ span(S1 ∪ S2 ).
Exercise 1.5.15: Let S = {u1 , u2 , ..., un } be a finite set of vectors. Prove that
S is linearly dependent if and only if u1 = 0 or uk+1 ∈ span({u1 , u2 , ..., uk }) for
some k (1 ≤ k < n)
Proof:
(⇒) Suppose that S is linearly dependent. Then we need to prove that ei-
ther u1 = 0 or there exists some k such that uk+1 ∈ span({u1 , u2 , ..., uk }). If
u1 = 0, then we are done. So let us suppose that u1 6= 0. Then what we need
to prove is that the second part of the statement must be true: there exists
some k such that uk+1 ∈ span({u1 , u2 , ..., uk }). The way we approach this is to
proceed via proof by contradiction. Suppose that there is no such k such that
uk+1 ∈ span({u1 , u2 , ..., uk }). To rephrase, this means that for all k, uk+1 ∈ /
span({u1 , u2 , ..., uk }). So we now need to use this assumption repeatedly, as
follows: u2 ∈ / span({u1 }) implies that {u1 , u2 } is a linearly independent set.
Similarly, u3 ∈ / span({u1 , u2 }) implies that {u1 , u2 , u3 } is a linearly independent
set. We can continue in this fashion until we get the following final statement:
un ∈/ span({u1 , u2 , ..., un−1 }) implies that S = {u1 , u2 , ..., un } is a linearly de-
pendent set. However, our initial assumption is that S is linearly dependent.
This is our contradiction. Therefore our initial assumption is false; there must
exist some k such that uk+1 ∈ span({u1 , u2 , ..., uk }).
Solution: Let {u, v, w} be a basis for V . Since this is a three element set, we
conclude that the dimension of V must be 3. Looking at {u + v + w, v + w, w},
we see that this is also a three element set. Therefore if we can prove that this
set is either linearly independent or spans V , then we are done (make sure you
understand why this is true). We will show that {u + v + w, v + w, w} is a
linearly independent set. Let a1 , a2 , a3 ∈ F such that
a1 (u + v + w) + a2 (v + w) + a3 (w) = 0.
2
as:
0 = a1 (u + v + w) + a2 (v + w) + a3 (w)
= (a1 )(u) + (a1 + a2 )(v) + (a1 + a2 + a3 )(w).
Since {u, v, w} is a basis for V , it is a linearly independent set. Therefore from
the last equality, we can conclude that a1 = a1 + a2 = a1 + a2 + a3 = 0, and
from here we can conclude immediately that a1 = a2 = a3 = 0. Therefore we’ve
proven that {u + v + w, v + w, w} is a linearly independent set. Therefore it is
a basis for V .
Solution:
(a): Let {β1 , β2 , ..., βn } be a basis for V . Since span(S)=V , each of the βi ’s can
be written as a finite linear combination of elements from S. More specifically,
X
β1 = a1,i si
i∈I1
X
β2 = a2,i si
i∈I2
..
.
X
βn = an,i si
i∈In
where all of the aj,i ’s are scalars, and In ’s are finite index sets (see the note at
the end of the proof). Let us define the set
n
[
J= Ij
j=1
be the finite union of all the index sets. Now consider the subset of the vector
space [
T = sj .
j∈J
3
Since T spans V, and it is a finite set, by the Replacement Theorem (1.10) we
can find a subset of T –call it B–that is a basis for V . It is clear that B is a
subset of S, as it is a subset of T . This finishes our proof.