These notes closely follow the presentation of the material given in David C.

Lays
textbook Linear Algebra and its Applications (3rd edition). These notes are intended
primarily for in-class presentation and should not be regarded as a substitute for
thoroughly reading the textbook itself and working through the exercises therein.

The Dimension of a Vector Space

Recall that a basis for a vector space, V, is a set of vectors in V that is linearly
independent and spans V.

Theorem If a vector space, V, has a basis that contains exactly n vectors, then every
basis for V contains exactly n vectors.
Proof
Suppose that V is a vector space and that B v 1 , v 2 , , v n is a basis for
V (containing exactly n vectors). We will first prove that any set of vectors in V
that contains more than n vectors cannot be a basis for V.
Let C w 1 , w 2 , , w n , , w m be a set of vectors in V that contains more
than n vectors. (We are assuming that C contains exactly m vectors where m n.).
Since B is a basis for V, every vector in C can be written (in a unique way) as a
linear combination of the vectors in B. That is,
w 1 a 11 v 1 a 12 v 2 a 1n v n
w 2 a 21 v 1 a 22 v 2 a 2n v n

w n a n1 v 1 a n2 v 2 a nn v n

w m a m1 v 1 a m2 v 2 a mn v n .
Now consider the equation
c 1w1 c 2w2 c nwn c mwm 0V.
This equation can be written as
c 1 a 11 v 1 a 12 v 2 a 1n v n
c 2 a 21 v 1 a 22 v 2 a 2n v n

c n a n1 v 1 a n2 v 2 a nn v n

c m a m1 v 1 a m2 v 2 a mn v n
0V
or as

c 1 a 11 c 2 a 21 c n a n1 c m a m1 v 1
c 1 a 12 c 2 a 22 c n a n2 c m a m2 v 2

c 1 a 1n c 2 a 2n c n a nn c m a mn v n
0V.
Since the set B is linearly independent, all of the coefficients (weights) in the
above equation must be zero. Thus,
a 11 c 1 a 21 c 2 a n1 c n a m1 c m 0
a 12 c 1 a 22 c 2 a n2 c n a m2 c m 0

a 1n c 1 a 2n c 2 a nn c n a mn c m 0.
The above system is a homogeneous linear system with more unknowns (m) than
equations (n). Such a system must have nontrivial solutions. Thus, there exist
scalars c 1 , c 2 , c n , , c m , not all zero, that satisfy the above system. These same
scalars also satisfy the vector equation
c 1w1 c 2w2 c nwn c mwm 0V,
which shows that the set C is linearly dependent. Thus, C cannot be a basis for V.
We have proved that if V has a basis containing exactly n vectors, then no
basis for V can contain more than n vectors but, if we think about it, we have
actually also proved that no basis for V can contain fewer than n vectors. The
reason is as follows: If we have a basis for V that contains exactly m vectors where
m n, then the argument given above shows that no basis for V can contain more
than m vectors. In particular, no basis for V can contain n vectors, but this
contradicts our assumption that B is a basis for V.

Definition The dimension of a vector space is defined to be the number of vectors in any
basis of V. If each basis of V contains only a finite number, n, of vectors, then we
say that V is an ndimensional vector space. If V does not have a basis consisting
of a finite number of vectors, then we say that V is an infinitedimensional vector
space. The trivial vector space, V 0, is said to have dimension zero (even
though it actually has no basis).

Example For each positive integer n, the vector space n has dimension n.
Example For each pair of positive integers m and n, the vector space M mn , consisting of
all m n matrices, has dimension m n.
Example For each positive integer n, the vector space P n , which consists of all
polynomial functions p : that have degree less than or equal to n, has
dimension n 1.
2

Example The vector space P, which consists of all polynomial functions p : , is

infinitedimensional.
Example The vector space C 0 , which consists of all continuous functions f : , is
infinite dimensional.
Example If V is any nontrivial vector space and S v 1 ,v 2 ,,v n is any linearly
independent set of vectors in V, then the vector space SpanS (which is a subspace
of V) has dimension n.
Example If A is an m n matrix, then nulA, the nullspace of A, has dimension equal to
the number of nonpivot columns of A. Also, colA, the column space of A has
dimension equal to the number of pivot columns of A. This tells us that
dimnulA dimcolA n.
As a specific example of this, we can immediately observe for the matrix
1
A

2 3 4

4 3 0 6
0

1 0 3

that
dimnulA dimcolA 4.
To verify that this is correct, find bases for nulA and colA.