Assignment 6 answers Math 130 Linear Algebra

D Joyce, Fall 2012

h. Suppose that V is a nite dimensional vector space, that S1 is a linearly independent subset of V , and that S2 is a subset of V that spans V . Then S1 cannot contain more vectors than S2 . True. Since S1 is indep, it has at most n vectors where n is the dimension of V , and since S2 spans V it has at least n vectors.

i. If S spans V , then every every vector in V can Exercises from section 1.6, page 40, exercises 1, be written as a lin combo from S in only one way. 2ab, 7, 14, 16, 17, 21, 29a. False. S has to be lin indep for that. 1. True/false a. The zero vector space has no basis. False. Its basis is the empty set. Its dimension is 0. b. Every vector space thats spanned by a nite set has a basis. True, and you can nd a subset of that nite set which is a basis. c. Every vector space has a nite bases. False. For example, the set of all polynomials where the degree of the polynomials is not restricted. d. A vector space cannot have more than one basis. False. For example, for R2 , besides the standard basis {(1, 0), (0, 1)}, another useful basis is {(1, 1), (1, 1)}. e. If a vector space has a nite basis, then the number of vectors in each basis is the same. True, and we call that number the dimension of the vector space. In fact, its also true for innite dimensional spaces, but you have to carefully dene what you mean by innite number. Cantor did that with his theory of transnite numbers. The details are signicant, and the result depends on the axiom of choice. f. The dimension of Pn (F ) is n. False, Pn (F ) consists of polynomials in x of degree no more than n. It has dimension n + 1. g. The dimension of Mmn (F ) is m + n. False. Its mn. 1 j. Every subspace of a nite dimensional space is nite dimensional. True. The dimension of a subspace is less than or equal to the dimension of the space. k. If dim(V ) = n, then V has exactly one subspace of dim 0 and exactly one subspace of dim n. True. Theyre the zero space and V itself, respectively. l. If dim(V ) = n, and S is a subset of V with n vectors, then S is lin indep i it spans V . True. This is an important corollary of the dimension theorem. 2. Determine whether the given sets are bases for R3 . There are various approaches you can take. One way is to show the sets span R3 and are independent. Since the sets each have three elements, and the dimension of R3 is 3, its enough to show that the set either spans R3 or is independent since the theorems in the section say that when you have the number of vectors equal to the dimension of the set, then either spanning the space or being independent is enough to conclude the set is a basis. If you were to write an algorithm to solve the problem, one way to do that is to write the 3 3 matrix with the three vectors as the three columns (or rows if you prefer), and row reduce it. If after row-reducing the matrix you dont get a row of zeros at the bottom, then the original vectors form a basis.

7. The ve vectors u1 u2 u3 u4 u5 = = = = = (2, 3, 1) (1, 4, 2) (8, 12, 4) (1, 37, 17) (3, 5, 8)

The rst condition sets the values of a2 and a3 in terms of a4 , while the second condition sets the value of a1 in terms of a5 . You still get to choose a4 and a5 to be whatever you like, so a typical element of W2 is (a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 ) = (a5 , a4 , a4 , a4 , a5 ) where a4 and a5 are any numbers. That suggests the basis consisting of two vectors: one where a4 = 1 and a5 = 0, and the other where a4 = 0 and a5 = 1: (0, 1, 1, 1, 0), (1, 0, 0, 0, 1). Note that W2 has dimension 2. 16. Consider the vector space of all upper triangular n n matrices. Find a basis and name its dimension.

span R3 . Find a subset of the set S = {u1 , u2 , u3 , u4 , u5 } thats a basis for R3 . I notice that u3 = (8, 12, 4) is 4 times u1 = (2, 3, 1), so we cant have both of them in a basis. Lets throw out u3 from consideration. How about u1 , u2 , and u4 ? Are they independent? No, unfortunately, when you check, you see theyre not indep. You can nd u4 as a lin combo of the rst two. Lets throw it out of consideration. That leaves u1 , u2 , and u5 . They better be independent. And you can determine that by any technique you used in the earlier problems. So thats one basis. There are other subsets of S that work as bases, too.

These matrices have zeros below the main diagonal. If i > j, then the ij th entry is 0. The generic 3 3 upper triangular matrix is A11 A12 A13 14. Find a basis for the following subspaces of F 5 . 0 A22 A23 0 0 A33 W1 = {(a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 ) F 5 | a1 a3 a4 = 0} The space of 3 3 upper triangular matrices has You can treat this as a restriction on a1 . That dimension 6 and a basis for it is means a2 , a3 , a4 , and a5 can be freely chosen so long as you make a1 = a3 + a4 . In other words, a 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 , typical element of W1 is 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 ) = (a3 + a4 , a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 ) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 where a2 , a3 , a4 , and a5 are any numbers. That 0 1 0 , 0 0 1 , 0 0 0 . suggests a basis where for each vector one of a2 , a3 , 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 a4 , and a5 equals 1 while the rest are 0: You can see for nn matrices that the dimension (0, 1, 0, 0, 0), (1, 0, 1, 0, 0), (1, 0, 0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 0, 0, 1). will be n(n + 1)/2, the sum of the integers from 1 through n, but how do you describe the vectors in Thats not the only basis, of course, but it will do. a basis? Simply say that for each pair of indices Note that W1 has dimension 4. i, j where i j take the matrix where every entry 5 W2 = {(a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 ) F is 0 except the ij th entry is 1. Together there are | a2 = a3 = a4 and a1 + a + 5 = 0} n(n + 1)/2 matrices and they form a basis. 2

17. Consider the vector space of skew-symmetric n n matrices. Find a basis and name its dimension. These matrices have the property that for each i and j, the ij th entry is the negation of the jith entry. In particular, the diagonal entries are all 0. The entries below the main diagonal are negations of the the corresponding entries above the diagonal. The generic 3 3 skew-symmetric matrix is 0 A12 A13 A12 0 A23 A13 A23 0 The space of 3 3 skew-symmetric matrices has dimension 3 and a basis for it is 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 1 . 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0

You can see for nn matrices that the dimension will be n(n 1)/2, the sum of the integers from 1 through n 1, but how do you describe the vectors in a basis? Simply say that for each pair of indices i, j where i < j take the matrix where every entry 29a. Prove that if W1 and W2 are nite dimenis 0 except the ij th entry is 1 and the jith entry is sional subspaces of a vector space V , then their sum 1. Together there are n(n 1)/2 matrices and W1 + W2 is also a nite dimensional subspace of V , they form a basis. and that 21. Prove that a vector space is innite dimensional i it contains an innite linearly independent subset. Recall the denition in the book. A space is innite dimensional if it is not nite dimensional. That means it does not have a nite basis. That means we have to prove that

nite basis of size n, then the largest linearly independent subset would have size n (thats a theorem in this section), contradicting the existence of an innitely linearly independent subset. Therefore it cannot have a nite basis. q.e.d. Proof : Suppose that V doesnt have a nite basis. We need to construct an innite linearly independent subset. Well do this somewhat intuitively as the complete proof requires the Axiom of Choice. What well do is repeatedly add elements into an independent subset S. We can start with S being the empty set. Once we have n independent elements in S, well nd another to add to it. Suppose S is an n-element independent set. Since V has no nite basis, therefore S is not a basis for V , so S does not span V . That means theres an vector v in V which is not in the span of S. Since v is independent of S, therefore S {v} is an independent subset of V with n + 1 elements. Continue adding elements one at a time to S. The union of all these elements is an innite linearly independent subset of V . q.e.d.

dim(W1 +W2 ) = dim(W1 )+dim(W2 )dim(W1 W2 ). Hint. Start with a basis u1 , . . . , uk for the intersection W1 W2 , and extend this to a basis u1 , . . . , uk , v1 , . . . , vm for W1 and to a basis u1 , . . . , uk , w1 , . . . , wp for W2 .

Lets follow the hint. We should explain why the steps in the hint can be followed, then how to use A vector space does not have a nite basis the hint to complete the proof. i it contains an innite linearly indepenSo, rst of all, the intersection W1 W2 is a subdent subset. space of V which is nite dimensional, so it is, too. Heres one proof. One direction is fairly easy, but Let u1 , . . . , uk be a basis for W1 W2 . Now thats the other isnt. an independent subset of W1 , so we can extended to Proof : Suppose that a vector space V has an a basis for W1 (by a theorem in the section), so let innitely linearly independent subset. If it had a u1 , . . . , uk , v1 , . . . , vm be a basis for W1 . Similarly 3

we can extend to to a basis u1 , . . . , uk , w1 , . . . , wp Therefore, for W2 . Next, well show that all those vectors taken to- dim(W1 +W2 ) = dim(W1 )+dim(W2 )dim(W1 W2 ). gether, that is, q.e.d. Math 130 Home Page at http://math.clarku.edu/~djoyce/ma130/ form a basis for W1 + W2 . Well show that its linearly independent and that it spans W1 + W2 . First, independence. (This is the hard part of the proof.) Assume that theyre theyre dependent, that is, you can express 0 as a nontrivial linear combination of these vectors a1 u1 + + ak uk + b1 v 1 + + bm v m + c1 w1 + + cp wp = 0 The b coecients cant all be zero for then wed have a nonlinear combination of the us and ws and we know theyre independent. That gives us a nontrivial vector b1 v1 + + bk vm . Its in W1 since all the vs are in W1 . Yet it equals the negation of the vector a1 u1 + + ak uc + c1 w1 + + cp wp which lies in W2 . Therefore, it is in W1 W2 . But if b1 v1 + +bk vm is in W1 W2 , it can be expressed as a lin combo of the us. That gives us a nontrivial lin combo of the vs and us. That cant occur since theyre independent. Since dependence implies a contradiction, therefore theyre independent. Next, they span W1 + W2 . We know every vector in W1 is a lin combo of the us and vs, and every vector in W2 is a lin combo of the us and ws. Since a vector in W1 + W2 is the sum of a vector in W1 and a vector in W2 , its a lin combo of the us, vs, and ws. We now know that the us, vs, and ws together form a basis of W1 + W2 . Counting the vectors in the various bases, we nd dim(W1 + W2 ) dim(W1 W2 ) dim(W1 ) dim(W2 ) = = = = k+m+p k k+m k+p 4 u1 , . . . , uk , v1 , . . . , vm , w1 , . . . , wp