Monojit Bhattacharjee

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 Basis and Dimension

Monojit Bhattacharjee

Department of Mathematics
Birla Institute of Technology and Science
Goa

February 7, 2024

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Basis

1 A vector space may be realized as linear span of several sets of

different sizes.
2 We study properties of the smallest sets whose linear span is a
given vector space.

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Basis

1 A vector space may be realized as linear span of several sets of

different sizes.
2 We study properties of the smallest sets whose linear span is a
given vector space.

Definition
A subset S of a vector space V is called a basis of V if elements of
S are
(i) linearly independent.
(ii) S spans V .

Remark: A basis S of a vector space V is

1 a set consisting of least number of elements to span V
2 a maximal linearly independent set

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Dimension

Definition
The number of elements in a basis of vector space V is called the
dimension of V .
That is, if V is a vector space and S is a basis for V then

dimV = #S (the number of elements in S).

1 Finite Dimensional:
If a vector space has a basis consisting of finite number of
elements then it is called finite dimensional vector space.
2 Infinite Dimensional:
If a vector space is not finite dimensional then it is called
infinite dimensional vector space.

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Basis and Dimensions: Examples
(i) The set S = {e1 , e2 , . . . , en } ⊆ Rn where
e1 = (1, 0, . . . , 0) e2 = (0, 1, 0, . . . , 0) and en = (0, . . . , 0, 1)
forms a basis of Rn .

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Basis and Dimensions: Examples
(i) The set S = {e1 , e2 , . . . , en } ⊆ Rn where
e1 = (1, 0, . . . , 0) e2 = (0, 1, 0, . . . , 0) and en = (0, . . . , 0, 1)
forms a basis of Rn .
(ii) The set S = {v1 = (1, 2, 1), v2 = (2, 9, 0), v3 = (3, 3, 4)}
forms a basis of R3 .
(iii) The vector space
Pn (R) = {a0 + a1 t + · · · + an t n : a0 , a1 , . . . , an ∈ R} is
spanned by S = {1, t, t 2 , . . . , t n }. Since S is independent, so
S forms a basis of Pn (R) and dimPn (R) = n + 1.

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Basis and Dimensions: Examples
(i) The set S = {e1 , e2 , . . . , en } ⊆ Rn where
e1 = (1, 0, . . . , 0) e2 = (0, 1, 0, . . . , 0) and en = (0, . . . , 0, 1)
forms a basis of Rn .
(ii) The set S = {v1 = (1, 2, 1), v2 = (2, 9, 0), v3 = (3, 3, 4)}
forms a basis of R3 .
(iii) The vector space
Pn (R) = {a0 + a1 t + · · · + an t n : a0 , a1 , . . . , an ∈ R} is
spanned by S = {1, t, t 2 , . . . , t n }. Since S is independent, so
S forms a basis of Pn (R) and dimPn (R) = n + 1.
(iv) Let Mm×n (R) denotes the vector space of all m × n matrices
with entries in R.
Let eij denote the m × n matrix with 1 in (i, j) position and 0
elsewhere.
If A = (aij ) ∈ Mm×n (R) then A = m
P Pn
i=1 j=1 aij eij .
It is easy to see that the mn matrices Eij are linearly
independent. Hence Mm×n (R) is an mn-dimensional vector
space.
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More on Basis and Dimension....

Some Interesting Questions:

(i) What is the dimension of Mn×n (C) as a real vector space?
(ii) Let A be a n × n matrix. Then the columns of A form a basis
of Rn if and only if A is invertible. (why?)
(iii) If V = span{v1 , . . . , vn }, then the set {v1 , . . . , vn } forms a
basis of V ?
(iv) Every linearly independent subset of a vector space is a basis
for V ?

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Uniqueness of Basis Representation
Theorem
Let S = {v1 , . . . , vn } be a basis of a finite dimensional vector
space V . Then every v ∈ V can be uniquely expressed as
v = a1 v1 + · · · + an vn , for scalars a1 , . . . , an .

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Uniqueness of Basis Representation
Theorem
Let S = {v1 , . . . , vn } be a basis of a finite dimensional vector
space V . Then every v ∈ V can be uniquely expressed as
v = a1 v1 + · · · + an vn , for scalars a1 , . . . , an .

Proof:
1 let v ∈ V has two representations

v = c1 v1 + c2 v2 + · · · + cn vn ,

and
v = k1 v1 + c2 v2 + · · · + cn vn .

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Uniqueness of Basis Representation
Theorem
Let S = {v1 , . . . , vn } be a basis of a finite dimensional vector
space V . Then every v ∈ V can be uniquely expressed as
v = a1 v1 + · · · + an vn , for scalars a1 , . . . , an .

Proof:
1 let v ∈ V has two representations

v = c1 v1 + c2 v2 + · · · + cn vn ,

and
v = k1 v1 + c2 v2 + · · · + cn vn .

2 Then 0 = (c1 − k1 )v1 + (c2 − k2 )v2 + · · · + (cn − kn )vn .

3 Since v1 , . . . , vn ‘s are linearly independent vectors, so

c1 − k1 = c2 − k2 = · · · = cn − kn = 0.
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Coordinate Vectors
1 In R3 , the coordinates (a, b, c) of a vector v are precisely the
coefficients in the formula
v = ai + bj + ck.
2 That expresses v as a linear combination of the standard basis
vectors for R3 .

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Coordinate Vectors
1 In R3 , the coordinates (a, b, c) of a vector v are precisely the
coefficients in the formula
v = ai + bj + ck.
2 That expresses v as a linear combination of the standard basis
vectors for R3 .
Definition
If S = {v1 , . . . , vn } is a basis for a vector space V , and

v = c1 v1 + c2 v2 + · · · + cn vn

is the expression for a vector v in terms of the basis S, then the

scalars c1 , . . . , cn are called the coordinates of v relative to the
basis S. The vectors (c1 , . . . , cn ) in Rn constructed from these
coordinates is called the coordinate vectors of v relative to S, it is
denoted by
(v)S = (c1 , . . . , cn ).
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Basis and Dimension

1 We show that all bases of a finite dimensional vector space

have same cardinality (i.e., they contain the same number of
elements).
2 For this we prove the following result.

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Basis and Dimension

1 We show that all bases of a finite dimensional vector space

have same cardinality (i.e., they contain the same number of
elements).
2 For this we prove the following result.
Theorem
Let S = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vk } be a basis of a finite dimensional vector
space V . Then
(i) any set in V containing more than k elements is linearly dependent.
(ii) any set in V containing fewer than k elements cannot span V .

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Basis and Dimension

Theorem
Any two bases of a finite dimensional vector space have same
number of elements.

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Basis and Dimension

Theorem
Any two bases of a finite dimensional vector space have same
number of elements.
Proof:
1 Suppose S and T are bases of a finite dimensional vector
space V .
2 Suppose |S| < |T |. Since T ⊂ V , T is linearly dependent.
3 This is a contradiction.

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Basis and Dimension

Theorem
Any two bases of a finite dimensional vector space have same
number of elements.
Proof:
1 Suppose S and T are bases of a finite dimensional vector
space V .
2 Suppose |S| < |T |. Since T ⊂ V , T is linearly dependent.
3 This is a contradiction.

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Addition/Deletion

Theorem
Let S be a non-empty set of vectors in a vector space V .
(i) If S is linearly independent and v ∈ V − span(S), then
S ∪ {v} is also linearly independent.

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Addition/Deletion

Theorem
Let S be a non-empty set of vectors in a vector space V .
(i) If S is linearly independent and v ∈ V − span(S), then
S ∪ {v} is also linearly independent.
(ii) If v is a vector in S that is expressible as a linear combination
of other vectors in S, then

span(S) = span(S − {v}).

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Addition/Deletion

Theorem
Let S be a non-empty set of vectors in a vector space V .
(i) If S is linearly independent and v ∈ V − span(S), then
S ∪ {v} is also linearly independent.
(ii) If v is a vector in S that is expressible as a linear combination
of other vectors in S, then

span(S) = span(S − {v}).

1 In an n-dimensional vector space V , let S ⊆ V be a set with n

vectors. Then S is a basis of V if and only if S spans V or S
is linearly independent.

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Some Corollaries

1 Suppose V is a finite dimensional vector space. Let S be a

linearly independent subset of V . Then S can be enlarged to
a basis of V .

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Some Corollaries

1 Suppose V is a finite dimensional vector space. Let S be a

linearly independent subset of V . Then S can be enlarged to
a basis of V .
2 If W is a subspace of a finite dimensional vector space V ,
then:
(i) W is finite dimensional.
(ii) dimW ≤ dimV .
(iii) W = V if and only if dimW = dimV .

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Exercise

Consider the set

S = {(1, 0, 1, 0), (0, 1, −1, 2), (0, 2, 2, 1), (1, 0, 0, 1)}.

Can we find a subset of S which forms a basis for span(S)?

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