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Alternate Proof That Row Rank Is Same As Column Rank

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24 views2 pages

Alternate Proof That Row Rank Is Same As Column Rank

Uploaded by

Jitesh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Alternate Proof of the Fundamental Theorem of

Linear Algebra

Theorem
The row rank and the column rank of any matrix A are equal.

Proof
1. Definitions and Setup:
ˆ Let A be an m × n matrix.

ˆ The row rank of A is defined as the maximum number of linearly inde-


pendent rows of A.

ˆ The column rank of A is defined as the maximum number of linearly


independent columns of A.
2. Linear Independence Concept: Recall that a set of vectors {v1 , v2 , . . . , vk }
is linearly independent if the equation

c1 v1 + c2 v2 + · · · + ck vk = 0
(the zero vector) has only the trivial solution c1 = c2 = · · · = ck = 0.
3. Row Space and Column Space: The row space of A consists of all
linear combinations of its row vectors, while the column space consists of all
linear combinations of its column vectors. The dimension of the row space gives
the row rank, and the dimension of the column space gives the column rank.
4. Establishing Row Rank = Column Rank: We will show that the
number of linearly independent rows equals the number of linearly independent
columns.
Step 1: Show Row Rank Contributes to Column Rank Suppose the
rows of A span a space of dimension r (row rank). This means there exist
r linearly independent rows, r1 , r2 , . . . , rr . These rows can be expressed as a
linear combination of the corresponding columns.
Consider the linear combination that corresponds to them. If you write a
linear combination that equals zero:

1
c1 r1 + c2 r2 + · · · + cr rr = 0
This implies that:

rT1
  
c1
rT2  c2 
AT c =  .   .  = 0
  
 ..   .. 
rTr cr
This tells us that the set of corresponding columns c1 , c2 , . . . , cr must span
a space of dimension equal to r as well. Hence the column rank must also be at
least r.
Step 2: Show Column Rank Contributes to Row Rank Similarly, let’s
assume the column space has dimension r (column rank), meaning there are r
independent columns c1 , c2 , . . . , cr . We can express a linear combination of the
rows with respect to these independent columns and show that this contributes
to the row rank, thereby proving that row rank is at least r.
5. Conclusion: Since both the row rank and column rank are shown to be
equal to r, we conclude that:

Row Rank(A) = Column Rank(A)


Thus, the ranks of the rows and columns are equal, establishing the theorem.

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