VECTOR ALGEBRA

Linear Combination, Linear Dependence

Any nonzero vector v is called a linear combination of the
vectors u1, u2 , , ur if it can be expressed in the form
v  c1 u1  c2 u2   cr ur
where c1,c2 ,,cr are scalars.

Exploration
The combination cu fill a line, the combination au  bv fill a plane
and the combination au  bv  cw fill the three dimensional space.
1 
 
From now on, vectors like u  2 will be written as u  (1,2,3).
 
3 

Examples
1. Every vector in R3 is a linear combination of the standard
basis vectors i, j, k .
This is because for any (a, b, c) R3, we can write
u  (a, b, c)  a(1,0,0)  b(0,1,0)  c(0,0,1) R3
2. Express the vector x  (1,2,3) in R3 as a linear
combination of u  (1, 3,2), v  (2, 4, 1) and w  (3,2, 1).
Solution: (i) For any scalars a, b, c, we can write
au  bv  cw  x  a(1, 3,2)  b(2, 4, 1)  c(3,2, 1)  (1,2,3)
The corresponding system is
a  2b  3c  1, 3a  4b  2c  2, 2a  b  c  3
Solving the system, we get
40 48 5
a , b , c
41 41 41
The linear combination is
40 48 5
u  v  w  x or 40u  48v  5w  41x .
41 41 41

3. Consider u  (1,2, 1), v  (6,4,2) in R3. Then we can show

that w  (9,2,7) is a linear combination of u and v but
x  (4, 1,8) is not a linear combination of u and v.

A set of vectors u1, u2 , , ur is said to be linearly dependent if we

can find a set of scalars c1,c2 ,,cr , not all of them zero, such that
c1 u1  c2 u2   cr ur  0
If c1  0, c2  0,,cr  0, then the set is linearly independent.

Theorem
Two vectors are linearly dependent if one of them is a scalar
multiple of the other.

A sequence of vectors is either dependent or independent.

Consider some examples:
(a) The standard basis vectors (1,0) and (0,1) in R 2 ;
(1,0,0), (0,1,0) and (0,0,1) in R3 are independent.
(b) The vectors (1,1) and (1, 1) in R2 are dependent.
(c) The vectors (1,1) and (0,0) in R2 are dependent.
(d) In R2 , any three vectors are independent and, in general,
any set of n vectors in Rm must be linearly dependent if
n  m.
Examples
1. Determine whether the vectors u  (1, 2,3), v  (5,6, 1) and
and w  (3,2,1) form a linearly dependent set or a linearly
independent set. If dependent, find a linear relation among
them.
Solution: For any scalars a, b, c we can write
au  bv  cw  0
 a(1, 2,3)  b(5,6, 1)  c(3,2,1)  (0,0,0)
 a  5b  3c  0,  2a  6b  2c  0, 3a  b  c  0
Now reduce the coefficient matrix to row echelon form:
 1 5 3  1 5 3  1 5 3  1 5 3 
 2 6 2    0 16 8   0 2 1   0 2 1 
       
 3 1 1  0 16 8 0 2 1 0 0 0 
The reduced system is a  5b  3c  0, 2b  c  0
The leading variables are a, b and the free variable is c. Assigning
c  2, we get b  1 and and a  1. Hence, the vectors are linearly
dependent.
The relation among the dependent vectors is u  v  2w  0 or
2w  u  v .

2. Determine whether the vectors u  (2, 1,0,3), v  (1,2,5, 1)

and w  (7, 1,5,8) form a linearly dependent set or a linearly
independent set. If dependent, find a linear relation among
them.

3. Which of the following vectors in R 4 are linearly dependent?

(i) u  (0,0,2,2), v  (3,3,0,0), v  (1,1,0, 1)
(ii) u  (3,8,7, 3), v  (1,5,3, 1), w  (2, 1,2,6), x  (1,4,0,3)
Solution: (i) For any scalars a, b, c we can write
au  bv  cw  0
 a(0,0,2,2)  b(3,3,0,0)  c(1,1,0, 1)  (0,0,0)
  a  0, b  0, c  0
Hence, the vectors are independent.
(ii) Since

3 1 2 1
 8 5 1 4
det  
7 3 2 0
 
 3 1 6 3

 8 5 1  3 1 2   3 1 2 
 (1)  7 3 2   4  7 3 2   3 8 5 1
     
 3 1 6   3 1 6  7 3 2 
 (160  240  2)  4(60  48  4)  3(39  23  22)  128  0
Thus, the vectors are linearly independent.
Theorem
The vectors in space are linearly independent if the coefficient
matrix has a nonzero determinant.