Basis and Dimension

Basis
In our previous discussion, we introduced the concepts of span and linear independence. In a way a set of
vectors S = {v
1
, ... , v
k
} span a vector space V if there are enough of the right vectors in S, while they are
linearly independent if there are no redundancies. We now combine the two concepts.

Definition of Basis
Let V be a vector space and S = {v
1
, v
2
, ... , v
k
} be a subset of V. Then S is a basis for V if the
following two statements are true.
S spans V. 1.
S is a linearly independent set of vectors in V. 2.
Example
Let V = R
n
and let S = {e
1
, e
2
, ... ,e
n
} where e
i
has i
th
component equal to 1 and the rest 0. For example
e
2
= (0,1,0,0,...,0)
Then S is a basis for V called the standard basis.
Example
Let V = P
3
and let S = {1, t, t
2
, t
3
}. Show that S is a basis for V.

Solution
We must show both linear independence and span.

Linear Independence:
Let
c
1
(1) +c
2
(t) +c
3
(t
2
) +c
4
(t
3
) = 0
Then since a polynomial is zero if and only if its coefficients are all zero we have
c
1
= c
2
= c
3
= c
4
= 0
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Hence S is a linearly independent set of vectors in V.

Span
A general vector in P
3
is given by
a +bt +ct
2
+dt
3

We need to find constants c
1
, c
2
, c
3
, c
4
such that
c
1
(1) +c
2
(t) +c
3
(t
2
) +c
4
(t
3
) = a +bt +ct
2
+dt
3

We just let
c
1
= a, c
2
= b, c
3
= c, c
4
= d
Hence S spans V.
We can conclude that S is a basis for V.

In general the basis {1, t, t
2
, ... , t
n
} is called the standard basis for P
n
.
Example
Show that S = {v
1
, v
2
, v
3
, v
4
} where

is a basis for V = M
2x2
.

Solution
We need to show that S spans V and is linearly independent.

Linear Independence
We write
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this gives the four equations
c
1
+c
2
+c
3
+2c
4
= 0
2c
1
+ c
4
= 0
2c
2
= 0
2c
3
= 0
Which has the corresponding homogeneous matrix equation
Ac = 0
with

We have
det A = -12
Since the determinant is nonzero, we can conclude that only the trivial solution exists. That is
c
1
= c
2
= c
3
= c
4
= 0

Span
We set

which gives the equations
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c
1
+c
2
+c
3
+2c
4
= x
1
2c
1
+ c
4
= x
2
2c
2
= x
3
2c
3
= x
4
The corresponding matrix equation is
Ac = x
Since A is nonsingular, this has a unique solution, namely
c = A
-1
x
Hence S spans V.
We conclude that S is a basis for V.
If S spans V then we know that every vector in V can be written as a linear combination of vectors in S. If S
is a basis, even more is true.
Theorem
Let S = {v
1
, v
2
, ... , v
k
} be a basis for V. Then every vector in V can be written uniquely as a
linear combination of vectors in S.
Remark: What is new here is the word uniquely.

Proof
Suppose that
v = a
1
v
1
+... +a
n
v
n
= b
1
v
1
+... +b
n
v
n

then
(a
1
- b
1
)v
1
+... +(a
n
- b
n
)v
n
= 0
Since S is a basis for V, it is linearly independent and the above equation implies that all the coefficients are
zero. That is
a
1
- b
1
= ... = a
n
- b
n
= 0
We can conclude that
a
1
= b
1
, ... , a
n
= b
n

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Since linear independence is all about having no redundant vectors, it should be no surprise that if S ={v
1
, v
2
,
... , v
k
}spans V, then if S is not linearly independent then we can remove the redundant vectors until we arrive
at a basis. That is if S is not linearly independent, then one of the vectors is a linear combination of the rest.
Without loss of generality, we can assume that this is the vector v
k
. We have that
v
k
= a
1
v
1
+... +a
k-1
v
k-1

If v is any vector in S we can write
v = c
1
v
1
+... +c
k
v
k
= c
1
v
1
+... +c
k-1
v
k-1
+c
k
(a
1
v
1
+... +a
k-1
v
k-1
)
which is a linear combination of the smaller set
S' ={v
1
, v
2
, ... , v
k-1
}
If S' is not a basis, as above we can get rid of another vector. We can continue this process until the vectors
are finally linear independent.
We have proved the following theorem.

Theorem
Let S span a vector space V, then there is a subset of S that is a basis for V.

Dimension
We have seen that any vector space that contains at least two vectors contains infinitely many. It is
uninteresting to ask how many vectors there are in a vector space. However there is still a way to measure
the size of a vector space. For example, R
3
should be larger than R
2
. We call this size the dimension of the
vector space and define it as the number of vectors that are needed to form a basis. Tow show that the
dimensions is well defined, we need the following theorem.
Theorem
If S = {v
1
, v
2
, ... , v
n
} is a basis for a vector space V and T ={w
1
, w
2
, ... , w
k
} is a linearly
independent set of vectors in V, then k <n.
Remark: If S and T are both bases for V then k =n. This says that every basis has the same number of
vectors. Hence the dimension is will defined.
The dimension of a vector space V is the number of vectors in a basis. If there is no finite basis
we call V an infinite dimensional vector space. Otherwise, we call V a finite dimensional
vector space.

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Proof
If k >n, then we consider the set
R
1
= {w
1
,v
1
, v
2
, ... , v
n
}
Since S spans V, w
1
can be written as a linear combination of the v
i
's.
w
1
= c
1
v
1
+... +c
n
v
n

Since T is linearly independent, w
1
is nonzero and at least one of the coefficients c
i
is nonzero. Without loss
of generality assume it is c
1
. We can solve for v
1
and write v
1
as a linear combination of w
1
, v
2
, ... v
n
.
Hence
T
1
= {w
1
, v
2
, ... , v
n
}
is a basis for V. Now let
R
2
= {w
1
, w
2
, v
2
, ... , v
n
}
Similarly, w
2
can be written as a linear combination of the rest and one of the coefficients is non zero. Note
that since w
1
and w
2
are linearly independent, at least one of the v
i
coefficients must be nonzero. We can
assume that this nonzero coefficient is v
2
and as before we see that
T
2
= {w
1
, w
2
,v
3,
... , v
n
}
is a basis for V. Continuing this process we see that
T
n
= {w
1
, w
2
, ... , w
n
}
is a basis for V. But then T
n
spans V and hence w
n+1
is a linear combination of vectors in T
n
. This is a
contradiction since the w's are linearly independent. Hence n >k.

Example
Since
E = {e
1
, e
2
, ... , e
n
}
is a basis for R
n
then dim R
n
= n.
Example
dim P
n
= n +1
since
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E = {1, t, t
2
, ... , t
n
}
is a basis for P
n
.
Example
dim M
mxn
= mn
We will leave it to you to find a basis containing mn vectors.

If we have a set of linearly independent vectors
S = {v
1
, v
2
, ... , v
k
}
with k <n, then S is not a basis. From the definition of basis, S does not span V, hence there is a v
k+1
such
that v
k+1
is not in the span of S. Let
S
1
= {v
1
, v
2
, ... ,v
k
,v
k+1
}
S
1
is linearly independent. We can continue this until we get a basis.

Theorem
Let
S = {v
1
, v
2
, ... , v
k
}
be a linearly independent set of vectors in a vector space V. Then there are vectors
v
k+1
, ... , v
n

such that
{v
1
, v
2
, ... , v
k
, v
k+1
, ... , v
n
}
is a basis for V.
We finish this discussion with some very good news. We have seen that to find out if a set is a basis for a
vector space, we need to check for both linear independence and span. We know that if there are not the
right number of vectors in a set, then the set cannot form a basis. If the number is the right number we have
the following theorem.
Theorem
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Let V be an n dimensional vector space and let S be a set with n vectors. Then the following are
equivalent.
S is a basis for V. 1.
S is linearly independent. 2.
S spans V. 3.

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