0.1.

THE DIMENSION OF A VECTOR SPACE 1

0.1 The Dimension of a Vector Space
We speak of R
2
being two-dimensional, of R
3
being three-dimensional. We have an intuitive notion of what these
descriptions mean but how do we dene the dimension of a geometric object in a precise, mathematical way? It turns
out that the answer to this seemingly simple question can require some sophisticated ideas. For nitely-generated
vector spaces, however, there is an appealing algebraic approach to the concept of dimension. That approach is the
subject of this section.
Examples in R
3
Consider the vectors i = [1, 0, 0], j = [0, 1, 0], and k = [0, 0, 1] in R
3
. Every vector y = [y
1
, y
2
, y
3
] in R
3
can be
written as a linear combination of i, j, and k in exactly one way:
y = y
1
i + y
2
j + y
3
k.
We can think of the coecients y
1
, y
2
, y
3
as coordinates [y
1
, y
2
, y
3
] of the point whose position vector is y. It is no
coincidence that three vectors are needed to describe the coordinates of a general point in three-dimensional space.
That is the point of departure for our discussion of dimension. But there is more to it than that. We want our
denition of dimension to be intrinsic to R
3
; we do not want a denition that depends on any particular choice of
vectors. The selection of i, j, k may not be whimsical but it is certainly arbitrary. Our rst example shows that we
can use other vectors to uniquely describe all vectors in R
3
.
EXAMPLE 1 Suppose that u = [1, 1, 0], v = [0, 1, 1], and w = [1, 0, 1] are vectors in R
3
. Show that every vector
y = [y
1
, y
2
, y
3
] in R
3
can be written as a linear combination of u, v, and w in exactly one way.
Solution: Given

y = [y
1
, y
2
, y
3
] we must determine the solutions x
1
, x
2
, x
3
of the system
x
1
u + x
2
v + x
3
w = y.
We write y, u, v, and w as column vectors and form the 3 3 matrix
A = [u, v, w] =

1 0 1
1 1 0
0 1 1

and column vector x =

x
1
x
2
x
3

.
The system we must solve may be written as Ax = y. It may be dealt with in any of the usual ways. For example,
we can augment A with column y and obtain the reduced row echelon form:
rref

1 0 1 y
1
1 1 0 y
2
0 1 1 y
3

1 0 0 (y
1
+ y
2
y
3
) /2
0 1 0 (y
1
+ y
2
+ y
3
) /2
0 0 1 (y
1
y
2
+ y
3
) /2

.
This calculation tells us that x = [(y
1
+ y
2
y
3
) /2, (y
1
+ y
2
+ y
3
) /2, (y
1
y
2
+ y
3
) /2] is the unique solution of
the equation Ax = y. We conclude that it is possible to express

y as a linear combination of u, v, and w, and,
moreover,
y =
y
1
+ y
2
y
3
2
u +
y
1
+ y
2
+ y
3
2
v +
y
1
y
2
+ y
3
2
w
is the only way.
Example 1 shows that the three vectors u, v, w serve to describe all vectors in R
3
just as well as i, j, k do. The
important thing is that each set of vectors has three elements. We shall see that two vectors cannot be used to describe
all elements of R
3
. We shall also see when we use four or more vectors we cannot obtain unique decompositions.
It should be noted that if we want to express each vector in R
3
as a unique linear combination of three xed
vectors v
1
, v
2
, and v
3
then we cannot choose the three vectors in an arbitrary way. For example, if we set v
1
= i,
v
2
= i +j, and v
3
= 3i +j then we cannot represent k as a linear combination of v
1
, v
2
, and v
3
. In other words, the
equation x
1
v
1
+ x
2
v
2
+ x
3
v
3
= y does not have a solution x
1
, x
2
, x
3
for all y R
3
. Furthermore, the vector 2i + j
can be represented as v
1
+v
2
and also as v
1
+v
3
. In other words, the equation x
1
v
1
+x
2
v
2
+x
3
v
3
= y has more
than one solution x
1
, x
2
, x
3
for some y R
3
.
If widen the scope of our discussion, then the fundamental question that we have before us is this:
2
Given a vector space V , how can we tell if a subset {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} of vectors has the property that the
equation
x
1
v
1
+ x
2
v
2
+ . . . + x
N
v
N
= y (1)
has a unique solution x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
N
for every y V ?
For ease of reference we will give a name to a set of vectors with this important property:
Denition Suppose that V is a vector space over a eld F. Suppose that {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} is a subset of V . If for
every y V there are unique scalars x
1
F, x
2
F, . . . , x
N
F such that x
1
v
1
+x
2
v
2
+. . . +x
N
v
N
= y then
we say that the set {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} is a basis of V . We say that the N-tuple [v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
] is an ordered
basis of V .
The plural of basis is bases. Each basis {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} of V gives rise to N! ordered bases obtained by
rearrangement. For example, the ordered triples [i, j, k], [i, k, j], [j, i, k], [j, k, i], [k, i, j], and [k, j, i] are the 3! ordered
bases of R
3
that are associated with the basis {i, j, k} of R
3
.
With our new language we can state our fundamental question as follows: How can we tell if a given subset of
a vector space is a basis for it? We will answer this question in the next subsection.
Linear Independence
If {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} is a basis of a vector space V then equation (1) has a solution for every y V . This tells us
that the vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
span V . A basis has the further property that for each y there is only one solution
to equation (1). The following theorem tells us that the question of uniqueness is determined for all y by the special
case y =

0 .
Theorem 1 Suppose that v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
are elements of a vector space V over F. The equation x
1
v
1
+x
2
v
2
+. . . +
x
N
v
N
= y has exactly one solution x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
N
for every y in the span of v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
if and only if the equation
x
1
v
1
+ x
2
v
2
+ . . . + x
N
v
N
=

0 has only the trivial solution x
1
= 0, x
2
= 0, . . . , x
N
= 0. Otherwise, the equation
x
1
v
1
+x
2
v
2
+. . . +x
N
v
N
= y has innitely many solutions x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
N
for every y in the span of v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
.
Proof: Since

0 = 0v
1
+ 0v
2
+ . . . + 0v
N
we see that

0 is in the span of v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
. If the equation x
1
v
1
+
x
2
v
2
+. . . +x
N
v
N
= y has exactly one solution for every y in the span of v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
then it obviously has exactly
one solution when y =

0 . Clearly that unique solution must be the trivial solution x

1
= 0, x
2
= 0, . . . , x
N
= 0.
In the other direction, suppose that the equation x
1
v
1
+x
2
v
2
+. . .+x
N
v
N
=

0 has only the trivial solution x

1
=
0, x
2
= 0, . . . , x
N
= 0. Suppose that y is in the span of v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
. That means that the equation x
1
v
1
+x
2
v
2
+
. . . +x
N
v
N
= y has at least one solution. If we have a
1
v
1
+a
2
v
2
+. . . +a
N
v
N
= y and b
1
v
1
+b
2
v
2
+. . . +b
N
v
N
= y
then a
1
v
1
+a
2
v
2
+. . . +a
N
v
N
= b
1
v
1
+b
2
v
2
+. . . +b
N
v
N
or (a
1
b
1
) v
1
+(a
2
b
2
) v
2
+. . . +(a
N
b
N
) v
N
=

0 .
It follows that a
1
b
1
= 0,a
2
b
2
= 0, . . . , a
N
b
N
= 0, or a
1
= b
1
,a
2
= b
2
, . . . , a
N
= b
N
. In other words, for each
y the equation x
1
v
1
+ x
2
v
2
+ . . . + x
N
v
N
= y has exactly one solution.
Finally, suppose that the equation x
1
v
1
+x
2
v
2
+. . . +x
N
v
N
=

0 has a nontrivial solution

1
v
1
+
2
v
2
+. . . +

N
v
N
=

0 . Then we also have (
1
) v
1
+ (
2
) v
2
+ . . . + (
N
) v
N
=

0 for every F. Since dierent values
of yield dierent solutions we see that the equation
1
v
1
+
2
v
2
+ . . . +
N
v
N
=

0 has innitely many solutions.

Moreover, if
1
v
1
+
2
v
2
+ . . . +
N
v
N
= y, then
(
1
+
1
) v
1
+ (
2
+
1
) v
2
+ . . . + (
N
+
1
) v
N
= (v
1
+
2
v
2
+ . . . +
N
v
N
)
+ (
1
) v
1
+ (
1
) v
2
+ . . . + (
1
) v
N
= y +

0
= y.
Thus, for each we obtain a solution of x
1
v
1
+x
2
v
2
+. . . +x
N
v
N
= y by setting x
1
=
1
+
1
, . . . , x
N
=
N
+
N
.
Theorem 1 suggests that we have hit upon an important property worthy of a denition:
0.1. THE DIMENSION OF A VECTOR SPACE 3
Denition Suppose that v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
are vectors in a vector space V over F. We say that the vectors v
1
, v
2
,
. . . , v
N
are linearly independent over F if the equation
x
1
v
1
+ x
2
v
2
+ . . . + x
N
v
N
=

0
(to be solved for x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
N
in F) has only the trivial solution x
1
= x
2
= . . . = x
N
= 0. Otherwise we say
that v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
are linearly dependent over F. In this case there are scalars
1
,
2
, . . . ,
N
not all zero
such that
1
v
1
+
2
v
2
+ . . . +
N
v
N
=

0 . We call such an equation a nontrivial dependence relation.

Notice that a single nonzero vector v
1
is linearly independent since
1
v
1
=

0 is only true if = 0.
EXAMPLE 2 Show that the vectors

u = [0, 1, 1],

v = [1, 1, 1], and

w = [1, 2, 3] in R
3
are linearly independent.
Solution: We must determine whether the vector equation
x
1

0
1
1

+ x
2

1
1
1

+ x
3

1
2
3

0
0
0

(2)
has a nontrivial solution. Since the reduced row echelon form of the matrix

0 1 1
1 1 2
1 1 3

is

1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1

we see
that equation (2) has only the trivial solution. Consequently,

u = [0, 1, 1],

v = [1, 1, 1], and

w = [1, 2, 3] are
linearly independent.
We have observed that the vectors in a basis for a vector space span the space and are linearly independent.
Our next theorem asserts that the converse is also true:
Theorem 2 A subset {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} of a vector space V over F is a basis of V if and only if it is a spanning set
of linearly independent vectors.
Proof: Suppose that {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} is a set of linearly independent vectors that span V . The assumption that the
vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
span V tells us that the equation x
1
v
1
+ x
2
v
2
+ . . . + x
N
v
N
= y has at least one solution for
every y V . If it had more than one solution for some y then it would follow from the preceding theorem that the
equation x
1

v
1
+x
2

v
2
+. . . +x
N

v
N
=

0 would have a nontrivial solution, contradicting the linear independence of

v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
. We conclude that the equation x
1
v
1
+ x
2
v
2
+ . . . + x
N
v
N
= y must have exactly one solution for
every y V .
We close our discussion of linear independence with some simple facts.
Theorem 3 If v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
are linearly independent vectors then v
1
=

0 , v
2
=

0 , . . . , v
N
=

0 .
Proof: If v
i
were

0 then
0

v
1
+ 0

v
2
+ . . . + 0

v
i1
+ 1

v
i
+ 0

v
i+1
+ . . . + 0

v
N
=

0
would be a nontrivial dependence relation.
Theorem 4 If a set consists of linearly independent vectors then so does every one of its subsets.
4
Proof: Suppose that v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
are linearly independent vectors. Suppose that {v
i1
, v
i2
, . . . , v
im
}
{v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
}. Suppose that
i
1

v
i
1
+
i
2

v
i
2
+ . . . +
i
N

v
i
N
=

0 is a nontrivial dependence relation among
the v
i
1
, v
i
2
, . . . , v
i
m
. We will show that this assumption leads to a contradiction. For 1 j N set
j
=
i
k
if
j = i
k
and
j
= 0 otherwise. Then

v
1
+
2

v
2
+ . . . +
N

v
N
=
i
1

v
i
1
+
i
2

v
i
2
+ . . . +
i
N

v
i
N
=

0
is a nontrivial dependence relation among the vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
, which contradicts the hypothesis that the
vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
are linearly independent.
Theorem 5 A set of vectors is linearly dependent if and only if one of the vectors in the set can be written as a
linear combination of the others. In particular, two vectors are linearly dependent if and only if one is a scalar
multiple of the other.
Proof: If v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
are linearly dependent vectors then there is a nontrivial dependence relation
1

v
1
+
2

v
2
+
. . . +
N

v
N
=

0 . One of the scalars, say

i
, is nonzero. This gives us the linear combination

v
i
=

v
1
. . .

i1

v
i1

i+1

v
i+1
. . .

N

v
N
.
Conversely, if one vector is a linear combination of the others, say

v
i
=
1

v
1
+ . . . +
i1

v
i1
+
i+1

v
i+1
+ . . . +
N

v
N
,
then

v
1
+ . . . +
i1

v
i1
+ (1)

v
i
+
i+1

v
i+1
+ . . . +
N

v
N
=

0
is a nontrivial dependence relation.
The Dimension of a Vector Space
On rst reading the importance of our next theorem may seem obscure. Yet it is the key to the notion of
dimension.
Theorem 6 (Replacement Theorem) Suppose that V is a vector space over F that is generated by N vectors v
1
, v
2
,
. . . , v
N
. Suppose that w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
are m linearly independent vectors where 1 m N. Then m of the
vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
can be replaced with the vectors w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
so that the resulting set still spans V over
F.
Proof: We do the replacement one vector at a time. Since v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
span V we can nd scalars c
1
, c
2
, . . . ,
c
N
such that
w
1
= c
1
v
1
+ c
2
v
2
+ . . . + c
N
v
N
. (3)
Since w
1
is a member of a set of linearly independent vectors it cannot be

0 . Therefore one of the coecients c
1
,
c
2
, . . . , c
N
must be nonzero. Suppose that c
k
= 0. Then we may isolate v
k
in equation (3), obtaining
v
k
=
c
1
c
k
v
1

c
2
c
k
v
2
. . .
c
k1
c
k
v
k1
+
1
c
k
w
1

c
k+1
c
k
v
k+1
. . .
c
N
c
k
v
N
. (4)
We claim that v
1
, v
2
, . . . ,v
k1
, w
1
, v
k+1
, . . . , v
N
span V . To see why, let y be an arbitrary element of V . Then
there are scalars a
1
, a
2
, . . . , a
N
such that
y = a
1
v
1
+ a
2
v
2
+ . . . + a
k1
v
k1
+ a
k
v
k
+ a
k+1
v
k+1
+ . . . + a
N
v
N
. (5)
0.1. THE DIMENSION OF A VECTOR SPACE 5
If we use equation (4) to substitute for v
k
in equation (5) then we obtain, after regrouping,
y =

a
1

a
k
c
1
c
k

v
1
+

a
2

a
k
c
2
c
k

v
2
+ . . .
+

a
k1

a
k
c
k1
c
k

v
k1
+
a
k
c
k
w
1
+

a
k+1

a
k
c
k+1
c
k

v
k+1
+ . . . +

a
N

a
k
c
N
c
k

v
N
.
Since we can write an arbitrary element y of V as a linear combination of the vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . ,v
k1
, w
1
, v
k+1
,
. . . , v
N
, we conclude that they span V .
Next we will show that we can replace one of v
1
, v
2
, . . . ,v
k1
, v
k+1
, . . . , v
N
with w
2
. To simplify the notation,
let us rename the indices of the vectors v
k+1
, . . . , v
N
by shifting each down by one. After this renaming, our set of
spanning vectors consists of v
1
, v
2
, . . . ,v
k1
, v
k
, v
k+1
, . . . , v
N1
, w
1
. We can nd scalars d
1
, d
2
, . . . , d
N1
,
1
such that
w
2
= d
1
v
1
+ d
2
v
2
+ . . . + d
N1
v
N1
+
1
w
1
. (6)
There must be at least one index j such that d
j
= 0. Otherwise we would have w
2
=
1
w
1
. This equation
would result in the nontrivial dependence relation
1
w
1
+ w
2
+ 0w
3
+ . . . + 0w
m
=

0 , contradicting the linear
independence of w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
. Since d
j
= 0 we may use equation (6) to solve for v
j
:
v
j
=
d
1
d
j
v
1

d
2
d
j
v
2
. . .
d
j1
d
j
v
j1

d
j+1
d
j
v
j+1
. . .
d
N1
d
j
v
N1

1
d
j
w
1
+
1
d
j
w
2
. (7)
We claim that v
1
, v
2
, . . . ,v
j1
, v
j+1
, . . . , v
N1
, w
1
, w
2
span V . To see why, let y belong to V . Because v
1
, v
2
,
. . . ,v
j1
, v
j
, v
j+1
, . . . , v
N1
, w
1
span V we can nd scalars b
1
, b
2
, . . . , b
N1
, b
N
such that
y = b
1
v
1
+ b
2
v
2
+ . . . + b
j1
v
j1
+ b
j
v
j
+ b
j+1
v
j+1
+ . . . + b
N1
v
N1
+ b
N
w
1
. (8)
If we use equation (7) to substitute for v
j
in equation (8) the result is that the right side of equation (8) becomes
a linear combination of the vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . ,v
j1
, v
j+1
, . . . , v
N1
, w
1
, w
2
. Since we can write an arbitrary
element y of V as a linear combination of the vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . ,v
j1
, v
j+1
, . . . , v
N1
, w
1
, w
2
, we conclude that
they span V .
The process that we have been carrying out can be continued until each of w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
has been used to
replace one of the original spanning vectors.
EXAMPLE 3 The vectors v
1
= i, v
2
= j, v
3
= k span R
3
. The vectors w
1
= 2i 3j, w
2
= 4i 6j + 5k are
linearly independent. Apply the Replacement Theorem explicitly, replacing two of v
1
, v
2
, v
3
with w
1
, w
2
so that the
span remains all of R
3
.
Solution: We have w
1
= 2v
1
+ (3) v
2
+ 0v
3
. Because the coecients of v
1
and v
2
are nonzero, we may replace
either one of them with w
1
. Suppose that we replace v
2
so that the new spanning set is v
1
, w
1
, v
3
. Next, we express
w
2
in terms of these spanning vectors: w
2
= 0v
1
+ 2w
1
+ 5v
3
. We can use w
2
to replace any v
i
with a nonzero
coecient. We have no choice but to replace v
3
with w
2
. Our nal set of spanning vectors is v
1
, w
1
, w
2
. As a
check, let y = [y
1
, y
2
, y
3
] be an arbitrary vector in R
3
. By row reducing the augmented matrix [v
1
, w
1
, w
2
| y] (where
each vector is written as a column vector) we nd
rref

1 2 4 y
1
0 3 6 y
2
0 0 5 y
3

1 0 0 y
1
+
2
3
y
2
0 1 0
1
3
y
2

2
5
y
3
0 0 1
1
5
y
3

,
which tells us that we have the unique representation
y =

y
1
+
2
3
y
2

v
1
+

1
3
y
2

2
5
y
3

w
1
+
1
5
y
3
w
2
.
We will now apply the Replacement Theorem to prove that a set of linearly independent vectors cannot have
more elements than a spanning set.
6
Theorem 7 Suppose that V is a vector space over F that
1. is spanned by a set {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} of N vectors, and
2. contains a set {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
} of m linearly independent vectors.
Then 1 m N.
Proof: Suppose that m N + 1. Replace all N vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
with w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
N
, obtaining the
set {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
N
} of spanning vectors for V . This tells us that we can express w
N+1
as a linear combination of
w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
N
. As a consequence, Theorem 5 tells us that the vectors w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
N
, w
N+1
are linearly dependent.
That is, for some coecients c
1
, . . . c
N+1
not all zero, we have
c
1
w
1
+ c
2
w
2
+ . . . c
N
w
N
+ c
N+1
w
N+1
=

0 .
But then
c
1
w
1
+ c
2
w
2
+ . . . c
N
w
N
+ c
N+1
w
N+1
+ 0w
N+2
+ . . . + 0w
m
=

0 .
is a nontrivial dependence relation among the linearly independent vectors w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
, which is a contradiction.
Theorem 8 If {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} and {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
} are bases of V over F, then N = m .
Proof: Since v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
span V over F and the vectors w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
are linearly independent we use the
preceding theorem to conclude that m N. Likewise w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
span V over F and the vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
are linearly independent. Therefore N m. Since m N m neither inequality can be strict and N = m.
Our last Theorem tells us that any two bases of a nitely-generated vector space have the same number of
elements. This is the number intrinsic to a vector space that we will use to dene dimension. Of course, in order to
make such a denition we must know that bases actually exist.
Theorem 9 Every nitely-generated vector space has a basis.
Proof: Suppose that {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
N
} is a spanning set for V . Let w
1
be a nonzero vector. If V = Fw
1
then {w
1
}
is a spanning set and w
1
is independent. Therefore {w
1
} is a basis of V . Otherwise, V
1
= Fw
1
is a proper subset of
V and there is a nonzero element w
2
in V but not in V
1
. Notice that the vectors w
1
, w
2
are linearly independent
since neither can be a multiple of the other. Let V
2
be the space spanned by w
1
, w
2
. If V
2
= V then {w
1
, w
2
} is a
set of linearly independent spanning vectors. Hence, {w
1
, w
2
} is a basis of V . Otherwise, V
2
is a proper subspace
of V and there is a nonzero vector w
3
in V that is not in V
2
. We claim that there can be no nontrivial dependence
relation,

1
w
1
+
2
w
2
+
3
w
3
=

0 , (9)
among w
1
, w
2
, w
3
. That is because in such a relation we would have either
3
= 0 or
3
= 0, each of which leads
to a contradiction. In the rst case, the case with
3
= 0, equation (9) simplies to
1
w
1
+
2
w
2
=

0 . Since at
least one of the coecients
1
or
2
is nonzero, this equation contradicts the linear independence of w
1
, w
2
. In the
second case, the case with
3
= 0, equation (9) leads to w
3
= (
1
/
3
) w
1
(
2
/
3
) w
2
. This equation contradicts
the fact that w
3
is not in the span of w
1
, w
2
. We conclude that w
1
, w
2
, w
3
are linearly independent. We continue
the process, obtaining increasing sets {w
1
},{w
1
, w
2
},{w
1
, w
2
, w
3
}, . . . , {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
p
}, of linearly independent
vectors. As long as the subspace spanned by {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
p
} is a proper subset of V the process can be continued.
But we know that we cannot have more than N linearly independent vectorsso the process must end with some
set {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
p
} of linearly independent vectors that span V . As we have seen, such a set is a basis of V .
0.1. THE DIMENSION OF A VECTOR SPACE 7
Denition The dimension of a nitely-generated vector space V over F is the number of elements in a basis of V .
We will denote this number by dim
F
(V ) .
EXAMPLE 4 What are the dimensions of the following vector spaces:
1. C as a vector space over C.
2. C as a vector space over R.
3. V = {A M
3,3
(F) : A
t
= A} over F.
Solution: Every element z C can be written as z = z1. Here the z on the left is an element of vector space C, z
on the right is an element of the eld C of scalars, and 1 on the right is a vector in C. We see that {1} is a basis for
C as a vector space over C. The dimension of C over C is 1.
The vectors 1 C and i C are linearly independent over R. Every vector z C can be written as the linear
combination z = x + yi with x, y R. Therefore {1, i} is a basis of C over R. The dimension of C over R is 2.
The matrices v
1
, v
2
, v
3
, v
4
, v
5
, v
6
, in order,

1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0

0 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 0

0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1

0 1 0
1 0 0
0 0 0

0 0 1
0 0 0
1 0 0

0 0 0
0 0 1
0 1 0

constitute a basis for

av
1
+ bv
2
+ cv
3
+ dv
4
+ ev
5
+ fv
6
=

a d e
d b f
e f c

can only be 0 if a = b = c = d = e = f = 0 and every 3 3 symmetric real matrix has this form. The dimension of
V over R is therefore 6.
There are two requirements for a set of vectors {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
d
} to be a basis for a vector space V : the vectors
v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
d
must span V and they must be linearly independent. The next theorem tells us that if we know that
the dimension of V is d, the number of elements in the set {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
d
}, then we need only verify one of the two
conditions.
Theorem 10 Suppose that {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
} is a subset of a d-dimensional vector space V .
(i) If w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
span V then {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
} is a basis.
(ii) If w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
are linearly independent vectors then {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
} is a basis.
Proof: Suppose that the vectors w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
span V . We will show that we obtain a contradiction if these vectors
are linearly dependent. For then we would have a dependence relation
w
k
=
1
w
1
+
2
w
2
+ . . . +
k1
w
k1
+
k+1
w
k+1
+ . . . +
d
w
d
.
For any vector y we can nd scalars
1
, . . . ,
d
such that
y =
1
w
1
+
2
w
2
+ . . . +
k1
w
k1
+
k
w
k
+
k+1
w
k+1
+ . . . +
d
w
d
or
y = (
1
+
k

1
) w
1
+(
2
+
k

2
) w
2
+. . . +(
k1
+
k

k1
) w
k1
+(
k+1
+
k

k+1
) w
k+1
+. . . +(
d
+
k

d
) w
d
This shows that {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
k1
, w
k+1
, . . . , w
d
} span V . But this is a spanning set of independent vectors, hence
a basis. This is a contradiction since the dimension of V is d, not d 1. Therefore the vectors w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
must
be linearly independent. Because they also span V they constitute a basis. This proves part (i).
Next, suppose that w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
are linearly independent vectors. Because it is d-dimensional, the space V has
a basis {v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
d
}. In particular, the vectors v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
d
span V . According to the Replacement Theorem
we can replace v
1
, v
2
, . . . , v
d
with w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
so that the resulting set {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
} still spans V . But then
{w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
d
} is a spanning set of linearly independent vectors. It is therefore a basis of V .
8
Theorem 11 Suppose that V is a d-dimensional vector space V . Then:
(i) Any subset {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
} of V with more than d elements is a set of linearly dependent vectors.
(ii) Any subset {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
} of V with fewer than d elements cannot be a spanning set.
Proof: We know that V has a basis that by denition consists of d vectors. Therefore V has a spanning set with d
vectors; consequently it cannot have a set of linearly independent vectors with more than d elements. This proves
part (i).
Suppose that {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
} is a subset of V with fewer than d elements. If {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
} did span V
then V could not have a set of linearly independent vectors with more than m elements. But V has just such a set:
a basis with d elements. We conclude that {w
1
, w
2
, . . . , w
m
} cannot span V .
Our next theorem tells us that any set of linearly independent vectors can be extended to a basis.
Theorem 12 Let {w
1
, . . . w
m
} be a set of linearly independent vectors in a d-dimensional vector space V . Then
there are vectors v
m+1
, . . . , v
d
such that {w
1
, . . . w
m
, v
m+1
, . . . , v
d
} is a basis of V .
Proof: We have shown that V has a basis {v
1
, . . . , v
d
}. According to the Replacement Theorem we can replace m
of the vectors in the basis with the vectors w
1
, . . . w
m
and rename the remaining d m vectors v
m+1
, . . . , v
d
so that
{w
1
, . . . w
m
, v
m+1
, . . . , v
d
} spans V . But a spanning set of d elements in a d-dimensional vector space is a basis.
Theorem 13 If W is a subspace of a vector space V over F, then dim
F
(W) dim
F
(V ).
Proof: Let {w
1
, . . . , w

} be a basis of W over F. Then the vectors w

1
, . . . , w

are linearly independent in W.

But the linear combinations of w
1
, . . . , w

in W are exactly the same as the linear combinations of the vectors

w
1
, . . . , w

in V . Therefore {w
1
, . . . , w

} is a set of linearly independent vectors in V . We can extend this set to a

basis {w
1
, . . . , w

, v
+1
, . . . , v
d
} of V . Therefore d .