Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and

Subspaces

Kevin James

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Definition
Suppose that K is a field. A vector space V over a field K is a
non-empty set, together with two operations, addition + and
scalar multiplication ·, satisfying
1 ∀ u, v ∈ V , u + v ∈ V . (Closure under addition).
2 ∀ u, v ∈ V , u + v = v + u (+ is commutative).
3 ∀ u, v , w ∈ V , u + (v + w ) = (u + v ) + w (+ is associative).
4 ∃0V ∈ V so that ∀u ∈ V , u + 0V = 0V + u = u (Additive
identity).
5 ∀u ∈ V , ∃ − u ∈ V so that u + (−u) = 0V (Additive inverse).
6 For every u ∈ V and c ∈ K , cu ∈ V . (Closure under ·).
7 ∀u, v ∈ V ; c ∈ K , c(u + v ) = cu + cv . (Distributive Law).
8 ∀u ∈ V ; c, d ∈ K , (c + d)u = cu + du. (Distributive Law).
9 ∀u ∈ V ; c, d ∈ K , c(du) = (cd)u (Associativity of ·).
10 ∀u ∈ V , 1K · u = u. (Scalar Identity).

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Note
The additive identity in a vector space is unique. (This is exercise 1
in the text). Also, given v ∈ V , the additive inverse of v is unique.

Fact
For every u ∈ V and c ∈ K
1 0K u = 0V
2 c0V = 0V
3 −u = (−1K )u

Example
2
d
Take K = R and V = {x : R → R | dt 2 x + x = 0}.
Then V is a vector space.
Note that x(0) and x 0 (0) completely determine any x ∈ V . Thus,
V is essentially the same as R2 as a vector space.

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Definition
Suppose that K is a field and that V , W are vector spaces over K .
1 A map f : V → W is said to be a linear map (homomorphism
of vector spaces) if
1 f (u + v ) = f (u) + f (v ), ∀u, v ∈ V .
2 f (cu) = cf (u), ∀c ∈ K ; u ∈ V .
2 A linear map f : V → W is said to be an isomorphism of
vector spaces if in addition to the properties above it is also
bijective.

Example
The following are vector spaces.
1 K n is a vector space over K .
2 Suppose that S is any set and that K is a field. Then
{f : S → K } is a vector space over K .
3 The set Pn = {p(x) ∈ K [x] | deg(p) ≤ n} ∪ {0Pn }.

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Example
Show that Pn ∼
= K n+1 . This is exercise # 3 in the text

Definition
Suppose that K is a field and V is a vector space over K . If
W ⊆ V is also a vector space over K with the same operations as
those defined on V , then we say that W is a subspace of V and
write W ≤ V .

Note
If X is a vector space over a field K and Y ⊆ X . Then Y ≤ X
provided that Y is closed under the addition and scalar
multiplication defined on X .

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Example
1 Suppose that V is a vector space over K . Then V ≤ V and
{0V } ≤ V .
2 Let K = R and let
V = C ((0, 1)) = {f : (0, 1) → R | f is continuous} and
W = {f ∈ V | f (1/2) = 0}.
Then V is a vector space over R and W ≤ V .
3 Let K be a field and S any set. Let X = {f : S → K } and let
Y be the set of constant functions on S with values in K .
Then Y ≤ X .

Definition
Let K be a field and let Z be a vector space over K . Let
X , Y ⊆ Z . Define the sum X + Y of X and Y as

X + Y = {(x + y ) | x ∈ X ; y ∈ Y }.

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Note
Suppose that Z is a vector space over a field K . Suppose that
X , Y ≤ Z . Then,
1 (X + Y ) ≤ Z . (homework)
2 (X ∩ Y ) ≤ Z . (This is exercise # 7).

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Definition
Suppose that V is a vector space over K and that v1 , . . . vk ∈ V
and w1 , . . . , wk ∈ K . Then we say that
k
X
wj vj
j=1

is the linear combination of the vectors v1 , . . . , vk with weights

w1 , . . . , wk .
We denote the set of all linear combinations of v1 , . . . , vk by
Span(v1 , . . . , vk ).

Note
Suppose that V is a vector space over K and that
{v1 , . . . , vk } ⊆ V . Then Span(v1 , . . . , vk ) is the smallest subspace
of V containing {v1 , . . . , vk } ⊆ V .

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Definition
Suppose that V is a vector space over K and that
S = {v1 , . . . , vk } ⊆ V . We say that S spans V if Span(S) = V .

Definition
Suppose that V is a vector space over K and that
S = {v1 , . . . , vk } ⊆ V . We say that S is linearly dependent if 0V
can be realized as a non-trivial linear combination of the vectors in
S.
If S is not linearly dependent, then we say that S is
linearly independent.

Note
Any set containing 0V is linearly dependent.

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Lemma
Suppose that the vectors x1 , . . . , xn span a vector space X over the
field K and that the vectors y1 , . . . , yj ∈ X are linearly
independent. Then j ≤ n.

Definition
A finite set of vectors which span X and are linearly independent is
called a basis for X .

Lemma
A non-trivial vector space X over a field K which is spanned by a
finite set of vectors x1 , . . . , xn has a basis.

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Definition
A vector space X over a field K is called finite dimensional if it has
a basis.

Theorem
All bases of a finite dimensional vector space X over a field K
contain the same number of vectors.

Definition
Suppose that X is a finite dimensional vector space over a field K .
The number which is the common size of all bases for X is called
the dimension of X over K and is denoted dimK (X ).

Theorem
Every linearly independent set of vectors {y1 , . . . , yj } in a finite
dimensional vector space X can be completed to a basis of X .

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Theorem
Suppose that X is a finite dimensional vector space over a field K .
1 Every Y ≤ X is also finite dimensional.
2 Every Y ≤ X has a complement Z ≤ X such that
∀x ∈ X , ∃y ∈ Y ; z ∈ Z such that x = y + z.
Further, dimK (X ) = dimK (Y ) + dimK (Z ).

Definition
A vector space X is said to be a direct sum of its subspaces
Y1 , . . . , Ym if each x ∈ X can be written uniquely as x = m
P
j=1 yj ,
where yj ∈ Yj .
In this case we write X = Y1 ⊕ · · · ⊕ Ym .

Note (Homework)
Pm
Show that if X = Y1 ⊕ · · · ⊕ Ym , then dimK (X ) = j=1 dimK (Yj ).

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Definition
An (n − 1) dimensional subspace of an n-dimensional space is
called a hyperplane.

Fact (Homework)
Show that if X is finite dimensional over K with n = dimK (X ),
then X ∼ = K n.
It follows that any two vector spaces over K with the same
dimension are isomorphic.

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Definition
Suppose that X is a vector space over K and that Y ≤ X . Given
x, y ∈ X we say that x is congruent to y modulo Y and write
x ≡ y (mod Y |) if (x − y )j ∈ Y .

Fact (excercise #13)

Congruence modulo a subspace Y gives an equivalence relation on
X . Further if x ≡ y (mod Y ), then kx ≡ ky (mod Y ) for all
k ∈ K.

Fact (Exercise # 14)

The equivalence classes of ≡ (mod Y ) partition X .

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Definition
Suppose that X is a vector space over K and that Y ≤ X . Then,
1 For x ∈ X we denote the equivalence class containing x as
[x] = {w ∈ X | w ≡ x (mod Y )}
2 We denote the set of equivalence classes of ≡ (mod Y ) as

X /Y = {[x] | x ∈ X }.

Fact
Suppose that X is a vector space over K and that Y ≤ X . Then,
X /Y is a vector space with operations
1 [x] + [w ] = [x + w ], and
2 k[x] = [kx] for k ∈ K .
(Part of your homework is to prove that these operations are
well-defined).

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Example
Let X = K n and take Y = {x ∈ X | x1 = x2 = 0}.
Note that X /Y ∼
= K 2.

Theorem
Suppose that X is a finite dimensional vector space over K and
that Y ≤ X . Then

dimK (X ) = dimK (Y ) + dimK (X /Y ).

Corollary
Suppose that X is a finite dimensional vector space over K and
that Y ≤ X with dimK (Y ) = dimK (X ). Then X = Y .

Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces

Theorem
Suppose that X is a finite dimensional vector space over K and
that U, V ≤ X with X = U + V . Then,

dimK (X ) = dimK (U) + dimK (V ) − dimK (U ∩ V ).

Definition
Suppose that V and W are vector spaces over the same field K .
The Cartesian product of V and W is defined by

V × W = {(v , w ) | v ∈ V ; w ∈ W }.

Fact
Easy Exercise If V and W are vector spaces over the same
field K , then V × W is also a vector space over K .
Exercise 18 Show that dimK (V × W ) = dimK (V ) + dimK (W ).
Exercise 19 Show that (X × Y )/Y ∼
= X . (Hint: First we must
think carefully about what this notation means).
Kevin James Fundamentals of Vector Spaces and Subspaces