MATH1350H-A: Linear Algebra 1

Lesson 1.4: General form of a Solution

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In this section:

▶ Solution set in vector form.

▶ Types of solutions.
▶ Homogeneous systems.

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1.4 General form of a Solution

▶ Our solution sets all fit a pattern.

▶ They have a column matrix that is a particular solution of the
system added to an unrestricted combination of some other
column
matrices. 
      

 x 0 1 1/2 



 y  4 −1  −1  


       
▶ e.g.  z  = 0 + w  3  + u 1/2 w , u ∈ R
     


w  0 1  0  


 
u 0 0 1
 
| {z } | {z }
Particular Unrestricted
solution combination
▶ The combination is unrestricted in that w and u can be any
real numbers— there is no condition like “such that
2w − u = 0” to restrict which pairs w , u we can use.

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Example

x +2y −z =2
2x −y −2z +w =5

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Form of solution sets

Example  
x +2y −z =2 1 2 −1 0 2
−→
2x −y −2z +w =5 2 −1 −2 1 5
 
R −2R 1 2 −1 0 2
−−2−−−→
1

0 −5 0 1 1
Solution set:
        

 x 12/5 1 −2/5 

y −1/5 0  1/5 
    
 = +z +w  z, w ∈ R
 z   0  1  0  
 
w 0 0 1
 

Taking z = w = 0 shows that the first vector is a particular

solution of the system.

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Form of solution sets
Definition
A linear equation is homogeneous if its constant term is zero, so
that it can be written as a1 x1 + a2 x2 + · · · + an xn = 0.

Example
Consider the system of homogeneous equations derived from the
above system by changing the constants
 to 0’s. 
x +2y −z =0 1 2 −1 0 0
−→
2x −y −2z +w =0 2 −1 −2 1 0
The exact same
 elementary row operations
 reduce it to REF:
R −2R1 1 2 −1 0 0
−−2−−−→
0 −5 0 1 0
Solution
  set: (different,
   same
but  unrestricted
 combination)

 x 1 −2/5 

y 0  1/5 
  
 =z +w  ; z, w ∈ R
 z  1  0  
 
w 0 1
 

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Homogeneous systems
Some homogeneous systems have the zero vector as their only
solution
Example
 
3x +2y +z =0 3 2 1 0
6x +4y =0 −→  6 4 0 0 
y +z =0 0 1 1 0
   
3 2 1 0 3 2 1 0
R −2R1 R3 ↔R2
−−2−−−→  0 0 −2 0  −− −−→  0 1 1 0 
0 1 1 0 0 0 −2 0
   
x 0  
 0 
The (unique) solution is y  = 0 , i.e. solution set is 0
0
 
z 0
Note that a homogeneous system always has at least one solution,
namely the zero vector.
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Solutions to Systems of Equations

Theorem
Solution sets of linear systems are either empty, have one element,
or have infinitely many elements.

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Summary

Some things we looked at in this section:

▶ Saw examples of solutions sets to linear systems in vector
form.
▶ We saw a pattern in these solutions sets; a particular solution
to the system added to a linear combination of some vectors.
▶ We noted that solutions to linear systems can contain no
solutions, exactly one solution or infinitely many solutions.
▶ Homogeneous systems always have at least one solution.

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