A FLESHED OUT PROOF OF LAY’S THEOREM 2

Proposition 1. A system of linear equations is inconsistent if and only if the augmented

matrix of the system has a row of the form
 
0 0 ··· 0 b b 6= 0
when in eschelon form.
 
Proof. Suppose first that a system of linear equations has a row of the form 0 0 · · · 0 b
with b 6= 0 in eschelon form. Then, reinterpreting this row as an equation, we get
0x1 + 0x2 + · · · + 0xn = b
That is, 0 = b which has no solution. Thus the system is inconsistent.
Now suppose that we have an inconsistent system
 of linear equations. Suppose further
that there is no row of the form 0 0 · · · 0 b with b 6= 0 when eschelon form; we will
look for a contradiction. No row of the form 0 0 · · · 0 b means that the last column
is not a pivot column. So in reduced eschelon form every row looks like
 
0 ··· 0 1 ⋆ ··· ⋆
where ⋆ stands for any entry and where the 1 is in a column (call it the ith column) cor-
responding to a variable. Further, since we are in reduced eschelon form the ⋆s in pivot
columns are 0. Translating this row to an equation and isolating the xi on the left we get
xi = − ⋆ xi+1 − · · · − ⋆xn + ⋆
where no basic variables appear on the right hand side (since their coefficients are 0). Thus
for each value of the free variables we have a solution to the system, and so the system can
not
 be inconsistent.
 This contradicts our assumption that there was no row of the form
0 0  · · · 0 b , so that
 assumption must have been false. Therefore there is a row of the
form 0 0 · · · 0 b . 
Proposition 2. A consistent system of linear equations with has infinitely many solutions
if it has a free variable and has exactly one solution otherwise.
Proof. Since the system is consistent we know from its reduced eschelon form that we can
write each of the basic variables in terms of the free variables and constants.
If the system has no free variables then all the variables are basic variables, and each can
be written in terms of a constant. That is we have a unique value for each basic variable.
So the system has exactly one solution.
Suppose on the other hand the system has a free variable. Then this variable can take
on any real value; an infinite number of possibilities. For any fixed values of the other free
variables each of these possibilities gives a solution of the system, and these solutions are
distinct (they differ at the free variable at least). 
Together these two propositions give Theorem 2 from Lay.