Vector Space and Subspace

Contents
1. Structure of a Vector Space 1
2. Subspace 1
3. Sum and Direct Sum 1
4. Generating Sets, Linearly Independent Sets, and Bases 1
5. Structure of a Vector Space 1
Properties 2
6. Subspace Vector 2
Example 1 2
Theorem 1 3
Remark 3 3
Example 2 3
7. Sum and Direct Sum 3
Definition 2 3
Definition 3 3
Proposition 1 3
Example 3 3
8. Generating Sets, Linearly Independent Sets, and Bases 3
Definition 4 4
Notation 4
Example 4 4
Definition 5 4
Example 5 5
Remark 4 5
Definition 6 5
Example 6 5
Definition 7 5
Definition 8 5
Example 7 5

Vector Space and Subspace

1. Structure of a Vector Space

2. Subspace
3. Sum and Direct Sum
4. Generating Sets, Linearly Independent Sets, and Bases
*Summary This document, written for first-year students in mathemat-
ics and computer science, serves as a support for the algebra module in the
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second semester. This module consists of four chapters: vector space, lin-
ear applications, matrices, and solving systems of equations. The course is
divided into several parts, with the first chapter on vector spaces presented
below.

5. Structure of a Vector Space

Let K be a commutative field (usually R or C) and let E be a non-empty
set equipped with an internal operation denoted by (+):

(+) : E × E → E
(x, y) 7→ x + y
and an external operation denoted by (·):

(·) : K × E → E
(λ, y) 7→ λ · y
Definition 5.1. A vector space over the field K or a K-vector space is a
triplet (E, +, ·) such that:
(1) (E, +) is a commutative group.
(2) For all λ ∈ K, and for all x, y ∈ E, λ · (x + y) = λ · x + λ · y.
(3) For all λ, µ ∈ K, and for all x ∈ E, (λ + µ) · x = λ · x + µ · x.
(4) For all λ, µ ∈ K, and for all x ∈ E, (λ · µ) · x = λ · (µ · x).
(5) For all x ∈ E, 1K · x = x.
The elements of the vector space are called vectors, and those of K are
called scalars.
Remark 5.2. From now on, for simplicity, we will denote λu instead of
λ · u.

Properties
Let E be a vector space, x be a vector in E, and λ ∈ K, then:
(1) 0E x = 0E
(2) 0E λ = 0E
(3) λ(−x) = (−λ)x = −λx
(4) λx = 0E =⇒ λ = 0 or x = 0E

6. Subspace Vector
Let (E, +, ·) be a vector space, and let F ⊆ E. We say that F is a subspace
of E (abbreviated as s. v.) if one of the following equivalent properties is
satisfied:
(1) (F, +, ·) is also a vector space.
(2) F ̸= ∅, and for all u, v ∈ F and λ, µ ∈ K, (λu + µv) ∈ F .
(3) F ̸= ∅, for all u, v ∈ F , (u + v) ∈ F , and for all u ∈ F and λ ∈ K,
λu ∈ F .
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In particular, we will focus on the second property to prove that a subset

F is a subspace of E.
Remark 6.1. If 0E ̸= F , then F cannot be a subspace of E.

Example 1
(1) {0E }, E are subspaces of E.
(2) Let E = R2 . Then F = {(x, y) ∈ R2 ; y = 2x} = {(x, 2x); x ∈ R} is a
subspace of R2 . For example:
• (0, 0) ∈ F , so F ̸= ∅.
• Let u = (x, 2x) and v = (x0 , 2x0 ) in F , and let λ, µ ∈ R. Then:
λu + µv = λ(x, 2x) + µ(x0 , 2x0 ) = (λx + µx0 , 2(λx + µx0 )) = (X, 2X)
Hence, λu + µv ∈ F .
Thus, F is a subspace of R2 .

Theorem 1
The intersection of a non-empty family of subspaces is a subspace.

Remark 3
The union of two subspaces is not necessarily a subspace.

Example 2
Let E1 = {(x, 0) ∈ R2 } and E2 = {(0, y) ∈ R2 }. Then E1 ∪ E2 is not a
subspace because:
• (1, 0) ∈ E1 and (0, 1) ∈ E2 ,
• (1, 0) + (0, 1) = (1, 1) ∈
/ E1 ∪ E2 , because (1, 1) ∈
/ E1 and (1, 1) ∈
/ E2 .

7. Sum and Direct Sum

Definition 2. Let E be a vector space, and let E1 and E2 be two subspaces
of E. The sum of E1 and E2 , denoted E1 + E2 , is defined as the subset of
E given by:
E1 + E2 = {x ∈ E | x = x1 + x2 where x1 ∈ E1 and x2 ∈ E2 }

Definition 3. Let E be a vector space, and let E1 and E2 be two subspaces

of E. We say that E is the direct sum of E1 and E2 , or that E1 and E2 are
supplementary to each other in E, if and only if:
E1 + E2 = E and E1 ∩ E2 = {0E }
In this case, we denote:
E = E1 ⊕ E2
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Proposition 1. E1 and E2 are supplementary to each other in E if and

only if for all x ∈ E, there exists a unique x1 ∈ E1 and a unique x2 ∈ E2
such that:
x = x1 + x2

Example 3
Let E1 = {(x, 0) ∈ R2 } and E2 = {(0, y) ∈ R2 }. Then E1 ⊕ E2 = R2 , and
E1 and E2 are supplementary.

8. Generating Sets, Linearly Independent Sets, and Bases

From now on, the vector space (E, +, ·) will be denoted as E.

Definition 4. Let E be a vector space, and let u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un be vectors

in E. We say that u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un generate E, or that {u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un }
is a generating set for E, if and only if for every u ∈ E, there exist scalars
α1 , α2 , α3 , . . . , αn ∈ K such that:
u = α1 u1 + α2 u2 + α3 u3 + · · · + αn un
This means that every element of E can be written as a linear combination
of u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un .

Notation. We denote {u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un } as a generating set of E by:

Vect{u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un } or ⟨u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un ⟩

Example 4
We will show that u1 = (1, 1) and u2 = (1, 0) generate R2 . Let u =
(x, y) ∈ R2 . We want to find scalars α1 , α2 ∈ R such that:
u = (x, y) = α1 u1 + α2 u2
Substituting u1 = (1, 1) and u2 = (1, 0):
(x, y) = α1 (1, 1) + α2 (1, 0) = (α1 + α2 , α1 )
Thus, we have the system of equations:
x = α1 + α2 , y = α1
From y = α1 , we get α1 = y, and substituting this into x = α1 + α2 , we
obtain:
α2 = x − y
Thus, for any (x, y) ∈ R2 , we can express it as a linear combination of
u1 = (1, 1) and u2 = (1, 0), confirming that these vectors generate R2 .
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Definition 5
Let E be a vector space, and let u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un be vectors in E. We say
that u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un are linearly independent, or that {u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un }
is a linearly independent set in E, if and only if the following condition
holds:
(α1 , α2 , . . . , αn ∈ R, α1 u1 + α2 u2 + · · · + αn un = 0E ) ⇒ α1 = α2 = · · · = αn = 0
If u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un are not linearly independent, we say they are linearly
dependent or that {u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un } is a dependent set.

Example 5
We will show that u1 = (1, 1) and u2 = (1, 0) are linearly independent.
Assume that:
α1 u 1 + α2 u 2 = 0 R 2
Substituting the values of u1 and u2 :
α1 (1, 1) + α2 (1, 0) = (0, 0) ⇒ (α1 + α2 , α1 ) = (0, 0)
This gives the system of equations:
α1 + α2 = 0, α1 = 0
From α1 = 0, we find α2 = 0. Thus, α1 = α2 = 0, which shows that
u1 = (1, 1) and u2 = (1, 0) are linearly independent.

Remark 4
In a vector space E, any non-zero vector is linearly independent.

Definition 6
Let E be a vector space, and let u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un be vectors in E. We
say that {u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un } is a basis of E if and only if:
• {u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un } is a linearly independent set, and
• {u1 , u2 , u3 , . . . , un } generates E.

Example 6
Let u1 = (1, 1) and u2 = (1, 0). Then {u1 , u2 } is a basis for R2 .

Definition 7
The set {(1, 0, 0, . . . , 0), (0, 1, 0, . . . , 0), . . . , (0, 0, . . . , 1)} is called the canon-
ical basis of Rn . For example, {(1, 0), (0, 1)} is the canonical basis of R2 .

Definition 8
The dimension of a vector space is equal to the number of vectors in any
of its bases. We denote the dimension of E by dim(E).
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Example 7

dim(R2 ) = 2, dim(Rn ) = n
By convention, dim(0E) = 0, where 0E is the zero vector space.

Properties
Theorem 2. In a vector space E of dimension n, a basis of E is a family
that satisfies the following conditions:
(1) Linearly independent
(2) Spanning
(3) Contains n vectors
Furthermore, any family of vectors that satisfies two of these three properties
is a basis.
Example 8. To show that B = {(1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 0), (0, 1, −1)} is a basis of
R3 , it suffices to show that it is either linearly independent or spanning,
since dim(R3 ) = card(B) = 3. Lets verify that B is linearly independent.
Consider the equation:
α1 (1, 1, 1) + α2 (1, 1, 0) + α3 (0, 1, −1) = (0, 0, 0)
This gives the system of equations:


 α1 + α2 = 0
α1 + α2 + α3 = 0


α1 − α3 = 0
From the first and third equations, we deduce:
α1 = 0, α2 = 0, α3 = 0
Thus, {(1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 0), (0, 1, −1)} is linearly independent, and since the
number of vectors in B is 3, it forms a basis of R3 .
Theorem 3. Let E be a vector space of finite dimension n, and let F be a
subspace of E. Then:
dim(F ) ≤ dim(E)
Moreover, if dim(F ) = dim(E), then E = F .
Theorem 4. Let E be a vector space, and let E1 and E2 be two subspaces
of E. Then:
dim(E1 + E2 ) = dim(E1 ) + dim(E2 ) − dim(E1 ∩ E2 )
In particular, if E1 ∩ E2 = {0}, we have:
dim(E1 ⊕ E2 ) = dim(E1 ) + dim(E2 )