1 Linear Equations

in Linear Algebra
1.3
VECTOR EQUATIONS

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

VECTOR EQUATIONS
Vectors in
 A matrix with only one column is called a column
vector, or simply a vector.

 An example of a vector with two entries is

 w1 
w   ,
 w2 
where w1 and w2 are any real numbers.

 The set of all vectors with 2 entries is denoted by

(read “r-two”).
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 2
VECTOR EQUATIONS
 The stands for the real numbers that appear as entries
in the vector, and the exponent 2 indicates that each
vector contains 2 entries.
 Two vectors in are equal if and only if their
corresponding entries are equal.
 Given two vectors u and v in , their sum is the
vector u  v obtained by adding corresponding entries
of u and v.
 Given a vector u and a real number c, the scalar
multiple of u by c is the vector cu obtained by
multiplying each entry in u by c.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 3
VECTOR EQUATIONS
 1  2
 Example 1: Given u    and v    , find
 2   5
4u, ( 3)v , and 4u  ( 3)v .

 4  6 
Solution: 4u    , ( 3)v    and
 8  15
 4   6   2 
4u  (3)v         
 8  15  7 

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 4

GEOMETRIC DESCRIPTIONS OF

 Consider a rectangular coordinate system in the

plane. Because each point in the plane is determined
by an ordered pair of numbers, we can identify a
geometric point (a, b) with the column vector  a .
b
 

 So we may regard as the set of all points in the

plane.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 5

PARALLELOGRAM RULE FOR ADDITION

 If u and v in are represented as points in the plane,

then u  v corresponds to the fourth vertex of the
parallelogram whose other vertices are u, 0, and v.
See the figure below.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 6

VECTORS IN and
 Vectors in are 3  1 column matrices with three
entries.
 They are points in a three-dimensional coordinate
space, with arrows from the origin.
 If n is a positive integer, (read “r-n”) denotes the
collection of all lists (or ordered n-tuples) of n real
numbers, usually written as n  1column matrices,
such as

.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 7
ALGEBRAIC PROPERTIES OF  n

 The vector whose entries are all zero is called the zero
vector and is denoted by 0.
 For all u, v, w in and all scalars c and d:
(i) uv vu
(ii) (u  v)  w  u  (v  w)
(iii) u  0  0  u  u
(iv) u  (  u)   u  u , 0
where
u denotes
(1)u
(v)
c(u  v)  cu  cv
(vi)
(c  d )u  cu  du
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 8
LINEAR COMBINATIONS
(vii) c ( du)=(cd)(u)
(viii) 1u  u

 Given vectors v1, v2, ..., vp in and given scalars c1,

c2, ..., cp, the vector y defined by
y  c1v1  ...  c p v p
is called a linear combination of v1, …, vp with
weights c1, …, cp.

 The weights in a linear combination can be any real

numbers, including zero.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 9
LINEAR COMBINATIONS
 1 2  7
    
 Example 2: Let a 1  2 , a 2  5 and b  4 . 
     
 5  6   3

Determine whether b can be generated (or written) as a

linear combination of a1 and a2. That is, determine
whether weights x1 and x2 exist such that
x1a1  x2a 2  b ----(1)

If vector equation (1) has a solution, find it.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 10
LINEAR COMBINATIONS
Solution: Use the definitions of scalar multiplication
and vector addition to rewrite the vector equation
 1  2  7 
   
x1 2  x2 5  4 ,  
     
 5  6   3

a1 a2 a3
which is same as  x1   2 x2   7 
 2 x    5 x    4 
 1
  2  
 5 x1   6 x2   3
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 11
LINEAR COMBINATIONS

 x1  2 x2   7 
and    
2 x1  5 x2  4
   . ----(2)
 5 x1  6 x2   3
 The vectors on the left and right sides of (2) are equal
if and only if their corresponding entries are both
equal. That is, x1 and x2 make the vector equation (1)
true if and only if x1 and x2 satisfy the following
system.
x1
 2 x2
 7
2 x1  5 x2  4 ----(3)
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
5 x1  6 x2  3 Slide 1.3- 12
LINEAR COMBINATIONS
 To solve this system, row reduce the augmented matrix
of the system as follows.
 1 2 7   1 2 7   1 2 7   1 0 3
 2 5 4   0 9 18 0 1 2  0 1 2 
       
 5 6 3 0 16 32  0 16 32  0 0 0 

 The solution of (3) is x1  3 and x2  2 . Hence b is a

linear combination of a1 and a2, with weights x1  3 and
x2  2 . That is,  1  2  7 
   
3 2  2 5  4 .  
     
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
 5  6   3 Slide 1.3- 13
LINEAR COMBINATIONS

 Now, observe that the original vectors a1, a2, and b

are the columns of the augmented matrix that we row
reduced:  1 2 7
 2 5 4 
 
 5 6 3
a1 a2 b
 Write this matrix in a way that identifies its columns.
a 1 a 2 b  ----(4)

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 14

Quiz 3








© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 15

LINEAR COMBINATIONS

 A vector equation
x1a1  x2a 2  ...  xn a n  b
has the same solution set as the linear system whose
augmented matrix is
. ----(5)

 In particular, b can be generated by a linear

combination of a1, …, an if and only if there exists a
solution to the linear system corresponding to the
matrix (5).

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 16

LINEAR COMBINATIONS

 Definition: If v1, …, vp are in , then the set of all

linear combinations of v1, …, vp is denoted by Span
{v1, …, vp} and is called the subset of spanned
(or generated) by v1, …, vp. That is, Span {v1, ..., vp}
is the collection of all vectors that can be written in
the form c v  c v  ...  c v
1 1 2 2 p p

with c1, …, cp scalars.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 17

A GEOMETRIC DESCRIPTION OF SPAN {V}

 Let v be a nonzero vector in . Then Span {v} is the

set of all scalar multiples of v, which is the set of
points on the line in through v and 0. See the
figure below.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 18

A GEOMETRIC DESCRIPTION OF SPAN {U, V}
 If u and v are nonzero vectors in , with v not a
multiple of u, then Span {u, v} is the plane in that
contains u, v, and 0.
 In particular, Span {u, v} contains the line in
through u and 0 and the line through v and 0. See the
figure below.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.3- 19

1 Linear Equations
in Linear Algebra
1.3
THE MATRIX EQUATION Ax  b

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

MATRIX EQUATION Ax  b
 Definition: If A is an m  n matrix, with columns a1,
…, an, and if x is in , then the product of A and x,
denoted by Ax, is the linear combination of the
columns of A using the corresponding entries in x
as weights; that is,

 Ax is defined only if the number of columns of A

equals the number of entries in x.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 21
MATRIX EQUATION Ax  b

 Example 1: For v1, v2, v3 in , write the linear

combination 3v1  5v 2  7v 3 as a matrix times a
vector.
 Solution: Place v1, v2, v3 into the columns of a matrix
A and place the weights 3, 5 , and 7 into a vector x.
 That is,
 3
3v1  5v 2  7v3   v1 v2 v3   5  Ax.
 
 7 
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 22
MATRIX EQUATION Ax  b

 Theorem 3: If A is an m  n matrix, with columns,

and if b is in , then the matrix
equation Ax  b

a  x2aset
has the samexsolution
1 1 2
as...the
 xvector
a  bequation
n n
,
which, in turn, has the same solution set as the system
of linear equations whose augmented matrix is
.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 23

EXISTENCE OF SOLUTIONS
 The equation Ax  b has a solution if and only if b
is a linear combination of the columns of A.
 Theorem 4: Let A be an m  n matrix. Then the
following statements are logically equivalent. That
is, for a particular A, either they are all true
statements or they are all false.
a. For each b in , the equation Ax  b has a
solution.
b. Each b in is a linear combination of the
columns of A.
c. The columns of A span .
d. A has a pivot position in every row.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 24
COMPUTATION OF Ax

 2 3 4

 Example 2: Compute Ax, where A  1 5 3 
 
 x1   6 2 8
 
and x  x2 .
 
 x3 
 Solution: From the definition,
 2 3 4   x1   2  3  4
 1 5 3  x   x  1  x  5  x  3
  2 1  2   3  
 6 2 8  x3   6   2   8
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 25
COMPUTATION OF Ax
 2 x1   3 x2   4 x3 
    
  x1  5 x2  3 x3 ---(1) 
     
 6 x1   2 x2   8 x3 
 2 x1  3 x2  4 x3 

  x1  5 x2  3 x3 
 
 6 x1  2 x2  8 x3  .
 The first entry in the product Ax is a sum of products
(a dot product), using the first row of A and the
entries in x.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 26
COMPUTATION OF Ax
 2 3 4   x1   2 x1  3 x2  4 x3 
 That is,   x    .
  2  
   x3   
 Similarly, the second entry in Ax can be calculated by
multiplying the entries in the second row of A by the
corresponding entries in x and then summing the
resulting products.
   x1   
 1 5 3  x     x  5 x  3 x 
  2  1 2 3

   x3   
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 27
ROW-VECTOR RULE FOR COMPUTING Ax

 Likewise, the third entry in Ax can be calculated from

the third row of A and the entries in x.
 If the product Ax is defined, then the ith entry in Ax is
the sum of the products of corresponding entries from
row i of A and from the vertex x.
 The matrix with 1s on the diagonal and 0s elsewhere
is called an identity matrix and is denoted by I.
 1 0 0
 For example,  0 1 0  is an identity matrix.
 
0 0 1
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 28
PROPERTIES OF THE MATRIX-VECTOR
PRODUCT Ax

 Theorem 5: If A is an m  n matrix, u and v are

vectors in , and c is a scalar, then
a. A(u  v)  Au  Av;
b. A(cu)  c ( Au).
 Proof: For simplicity, take n  3 , A  a 1 a 2 a 3 ,
and u, v in .
 For i  1, 2,3, let ui and vi be the ith entries in u and
v, respectively.

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 29

PROPERTIES OF THE MATRIX-VECTOR
PRODUCT Ax
 To prove statement (a), compute A(u  v) as a linear
combination of the columns of A using the entries in
u  v as weights.
 u1  v1 
A(u  v)  a1 a 2 
a 3  u2  v2 
 
 u3  v3 
Entries in u  v
 (u1  v1 )a1  (u2  v2 )a 2  (u3  v3 )a 3
Columns of A
 (u1a1  u2a 2  u3a 3 )  (v1a1  v2a 2  v3a 3 )
 Au  Av
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 30
 PROPERTIES OF THE MATRIX-VECTOR
PRODUCT Ax

 To prove statement (b), compute A(cu) as a linear

combination of the columns of A using the entries in cu as
weights.
 cu1 
 
A(cu)  a1 a 2 a 3  cu2  (cu1 )a1  (cu2 )a 2  (cu3 )a 3
 
 cu3 
 c(u1a1 )  c(u2a 2 )  c(u3a 3 )
 c(u1a1  u2a 2  u3a 3 )
 c( Au)
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1.4- 31