Vector Spaces

C Hari Hara Suthan

10 December 2016

Note: Reader is recommended to prove the statements and verify the examples

1 Vector Space
Definition:
A vector space consists of
1. F a field of scalars
2. V a set of elements called vectors

3. a rule called vector addition. if x, y V x + y V

(a) x + y = y + x [COMMUTATIVE]
(b) x + (y + z) = (x + y) + z [ASSOCIATIVE]
(c) an element denoted by 0 V such that x + 0 = x [ADDITIVE IDENTITY exists]
(d) x V , there exists x V such that x + (x) = 0 [ADDITIVE INVERSE exists]
4. a rule called multiplication by a scalar. if x V and F x V
scalar multiplication should satisfy the following properties x, y V and , F
(a) 1x = x
(b) (x + y) = x + y
(c) ()x = (x)
(d) ( + )x = x + x
Note:

1. vectors are represented with bold letters and scalars are represented with normal letters.
2. Vector spaces are always associated with a field F of scalars.
3. If F is not explicitly mentioned we typically assume it to be the most natural one. (For example R3 is
typically assumed to be a vector space over R, though it is also a vector space over Q(rational numbers).

Examples of vector spaces:

1.

a1,1 a1,2 a1,n

a2,1 a2,2 a2,n



Fmn = A= : ai,j F

.. .. .. ..



. . . .


am,1 am,2 am,n

mn
mn
F is a vector space over the field F.
k
2. C k (a, b) = The set of all real valued functions f with the property that ddtkf is continuous in (a, b) (for some
a, b R such that a < b). C k (a, b) is a vector space over R (but not on C).

3. V = {(x1 , x2 , x3 ) R3 : x1 + 2x2 + 5x3 = 0}

Set of all points lying on a certain plane passing through the origin.
4. Pn (R) The set of all polynomials in a real variable 0 t0 with degree not exceeding n.

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 5. C forms a vector space over R (as well as C).
Examples of non-vector spaces:
1. V = {(x1 , x2 ) R2 : x2 = x1 + 1}
This is a straight line not passing through origin. 0
/V
2. Set of all polynomials of degree only 5 (not upto 5)

2 Subspace
Definition : A subset W of a vector space V is called a subspace of V if W itself is a vector space with respect
to the same operations in V .
It can be shown that a subset W of V is a subspace of V iff
1. x, y W x + y W
2. x W, R x W
Examples of subspaces:
1. Let A Fmn . The row space of A is defined as the set of all linear combinations of rows of A. The column
space of A is defined as the set of all linear combinations of columns of A.
(Verify that row space and column space are vector spaces)
(m )
X
Row space = ci ai : ai is the ith row of A, ci F
i=1
( n )
X
th
Column space = ci bi : bi is the i column of A, ci F
i=1

(a) The row space of A is a subspace of Fn .

(b) The column space of A is a subspace of Fm .
2. Let Pk be a real vector space of all polynomials of degree less than or equal to k, where k N.
For 1 < l < k consider a subset Pl Pk . Then Pl is a subspace of Pk .
3. R is a subspace of C over the field R (but not over the field C).

3 Linear Dependence and Independence

1. Consider a set of vectors v1 , v2 , , vk in V . These vectors are said to be linearly dependent if 1 v1 +2 v2 +
+ k vk = 0 holds with not all i being 0
Observe: If s 6= 0 for some 1 s k then
i
vs = 1 v1 + 2 v2 + + k vk (i = s i 6= s) (that means vs can be represented as linear combination
of other vectors).
2. A set of vectors v1 , v2 , , vk in V are said to be linearly independent if they are not linearly dependent.
that is
1 v1 + 2 v2 + + k vk = 0 1 = 2 = = k = 0

3. Empty set is always Linearly Independent.

4. Any subset of a linearly independent(LI) set is also linearly independent(verify).
5. Any superset of a linearly dependent(LD) set is also linearly dependent(verify).
6. {0} is linearly dependent set(verify).
Example for LD and LI: Consider the vectors (from R2 )
     
1 1 1
v1 = , v2 = , v3 = (1)
1 2 3
Any two of these vectors are Linearly Independent.
But all three taken together are Linearly Dependent since v3 = 2v2 v1

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4 Span of a set of vectors
The span of a set of vectors is the set of all linear combinations
nP of the ovectors in that set. Let a set S =
k
{v1 , v2 , , vk }. The span of S is given by span(S) = v
i=1 i i : i F

Note: The span(S) forms a vector space (check).

5 Spanning subset of a vector space

A subset S = {v1 , v2 , , vk } V is called a spanning subset of V if for any v V , there are scalars
1 , 2 , , k F such that v = 1 v1 + 2 v2 + + k vk
Here we can say that S spans V (or) span(S)= V

Example:
S = {(1, 2), (1, 1), (4, 9)} is a spanning subset of R2 since span(S) = R2

6 Basis
Definition: Let V be a vector space. A subset B of V is called a basis of V iff
1. B is linearly independent set
2. B spans V
Example: Any linearly independent subset of R2 consisting of two vectors will be a basis of R2 . There are infinitely
many choices for this. One choice is {(1, 1), (2, 1)}

Some facts:(verify)
1. The number of elements in a linearly Independent subset of a vector space is always less than or equal to
Number of elements in a spanning subset of the vector space.
2. If the above fact holds with equality sign then the subset will become a basis of the vector space.
3. A basis for a vector space V is a maximal linearly independent subset of V or equivalently a minimal spanning
subset of V .
4. A vector space can have more than one basis.
5. Any basis of a vector space has same number of vectors. The dimension of a vector space V is the number
of vectors in basis of V . It is denoted by dim(V ).
6. vector spaces can be of finite dimensional or infinite dimensional.
7. Any vector v V can be written as a linear combination of the basis vectors.

7 Basis extension theorem

Theorem:
Let V be a finite dimensional vector space and S be a linearly independent subset of vectors from V . Then S can
be extended to a basis of V .

Proof:
If span(S) = V then S is a spanning subset of V which is also Linear independent so S must be a basis and this
concludes the proof. Suppose not. Then let S = {u1 , u2 , , ul }. If span(S) 6= V then ul+1 V such that
ul+1 / span(S). Consider S1 = S {ul+1 } = {u1 , u2 , , ul , ul+1 }. S1 is Linearly independent (check). If
span(S) = V then S1 is a basis of V . If span(S1 ) 6= V then we repeat the above procedure. Since it is a finite
dimensional vector space this process should end after at most dim(V ) steps (check). At the end of the process we
should obtain a basis Sk of V such that S Sk . This completes the proof.

Corollary: A basis for a subspace W of V can be extended to a basis of V

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Example:
Pi (R) The set of all polynomials in a real variable 0 t0 with degree not exceeding i, where i is a finite integer
greater than 0. It is a vector space. Any polynomial p Pn (R) can be represented as p = p0 +p1 t+p2 t2 + +pn tn .
Here the basis vectors are t0 , t1 , t2 , , tn . If we add one more vector tn+1 to the above basis then the whole set
will become a basis for Pn+1 (R)

8 How vectors can be represented as ordered sets of coordinates

Let us consider a n dimensional vector space V with unit vectors u1 , u2 , , un . Any vector u V can be
expressed as a linear combinations of basis vectors.

Example:
consider the vector space R2 . consider one of the basis with basis vectors are u1 = (1, 0) and u2 = (0, 1). consider
a vector 5u1 + 6u2 . This can be written as 5(1, 0) + 6(0, 1) = (5, 6).

9 How choice of basis affects the representation of vectors

The same vector can have different representations in different basis.

Example:
Let us consider the previous example. Let the basis be w1 = (1, 0), w2 = (1, 1). Now let us find how the vector
(5,6) can be represented in the new basis. For this we need to solve the following system.
    
1 1 1 5
=
0 1 2 6

by solving this we get 1 = 1 and 2 = 6.

So in the new basis the same vector is represented as (1, 6).