Section 21.4 Examples
In this section.
Subsection 21.4.1 The three spaces
Column space of A.
From the positions of the leading ones in the reduced matrix, we see that the first, second, and fourth columns of A are linearly independent, so a basis for the column space of A isRow space of A.
The leading ones guarantee that the nonzero rows in the reduced matrix are linearly independent. Since row reducing does not change the row space, we get our basis for the row space of A from the reduced matrix:Null space of A.
Finally, for the null space of A we solve the homogeneous system as usual. The third and fifth columns represent free variables, so we set parameters x3=s and x5=t. Solving for the remaining variables leads to a general solution in parametric formSubsection 21.4.2 Enlarging a linearly independent set
Row space is also a convenient tool for enlarging a linearly independent set into a basis. Here are two examples of carrying out this task, one using vectors in Rn, and one using vectors in another space, where we use the associated coordinate vectors in Rn to assist us.Example 21.4.1. Using row space to enlarge a linearly independent set in R4.
Suppose we would like to take the linearly independent set
of vectors in R4 and enlarge it into a basis for all of R4. Since dimR4=4, we need two more vectors.
Using Proposition 18.5.6, we can start by determining a vector that is not in the subspace U=Span{v1,v2}, where v1,v2 are the two given vectors. However, guess-and-check is not a very efficient method for doing this. Instead, let's set up a matrix with v1 and v2 as rows, so that U is precisely the row space of that matrix. We can then use row reduction to determine a simpler basis for U:
We can see from the pattern of leading ones in the reduced matrix that to span all of R4, we need to introduce some βindependenceβ in the second and fourth coordinates. So let's try enlarging our initial set of vectors by the second and fourth standard basis vectors:
The rows of the reduced matrix are the four standard basis vectors for R4, hence the row space of the reduced matrix is all of R4. We know that row operations do not change row space, so the rows of the initial matrix must also span all of R4. Since we have a spanning set for a dimension-4 space consisting of four vectors, those four vectors must for a basis for the space.
Example 21.4.2. Using row space to enlarge a linearly independent set in M2(R).
Suppose we would like to take the linearly independent set
of vectors in M2(R) and enlarge it into a basis for all of M2(R). Since dimM2(R)=4, we need two more vectors. Now, we cannot row reduce the given matrices β that would be meaningless, as these matrices are not made of row vectors or column vectors, they are themselves vectors. However, we can get back to the land of row vectors by using coordinate vectors relative to the standard basis S for M2(R):
where v1,v2 are the two given vectors. These coordinate vectors are precisely the vectors from Example 21.4.1 above, so using those results we expect that we should be able to enlarge our basis using vectors v3 and v4 that have coordinate vectors
Thus, we can enlarge the initial set of vectors to the basis
for M2(R).