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Section 1.2 Terminology and notation

linear equation
an equation of the form
\begin{equation*} \textit{number} \text{ times } \textit{variable} \text{ plus } \textit{number} \text{ times } \textit{variable} \text{ plus } \dotsb \text{ equals } \textit{number} \end{equation*}
system of linear equations
a (finite) collection of linear equations

Note 1.2.1.

We will often just say system of equations to mean a system of linear equations.
solution
a set of values that, when substituted in for the variables of a system of equations, satisfy all of the equations in the system simultaneously
solution set
the collection of all possible solutions to a system of equations
consistent system
a system of equations with at least one solution
inconsistent system
a system of equations with no solution
parametric equations
a collection of formulas, based on one or more parameters, for the variables in a linear system that represent all possible solutions to the system (as the parameters vary over all real numbers)
matrix
a rectangular array of numbers
augmented matrix
a matrix of the coefficients and constants in a linear system
matrix entry
one of the numbers in a matrix; sometimes also referred to as a matrix coefficient
row
a horizontal line of entries in a matrix
column
a vertical line of entries in a matrix
elementary row operations
the three basic operations that can be applied to an augmented matrix without changing the set of solutions to the corresponding linear system:
  1. swap the positions of two rows,
  2. multiply a row by a nonzero constant, and
  3. add a multiple of one row to another.