Department of Mathematics

College of Engineering, Pune

(MA-15001) Linear Algebra Tutorial - 3 (Unit -I)

F.Y.B.Tech.(All Branches) 2018-19 Semester-1

Topics: Linear dependence/independence, basis, dimension.

1. Let V be a vector space and v1 , v2 , . . . , vn ∈ V . When do we say that v1 , v2 , . . . , vn are

linearly dependent ? linearly independent ?

2. Which of the following sets are linearly dependent over R ? Give a relation between
the vectors when dependent.
(i) {(−1, 1, 1), (1, −1, 1), (1, 1, −1), (0, 1, 0)} (ii) {(π, 0), (0, e)}
(iii) {(1, 9, 9, 8), (2, 0, 0, 1), (2, 0, 0, 4)} (iv) {(2, 1), (1, −1), (1, 1)}

3. Let V be a vector space.

(a) Let S be a finite subset of V containing 0. Show that S is linearly dependent.

(b) Let 0 6= u ∈ V . Show that the singleton set {u} is linearly independent.
(c) Let v, w ∈ V . Show that v, w are linearly dependent if and only if one of them is
a scalar multiple of the other, i.e. there is a number c 6= 0 such that v = cw or
w = cv.
(d) Prove: If v, w ∈ V are linearly independent, then so are v + w and v − w.

4. Prove that the vectors (a, b), (c, d) ∈ R2 are linearly independent if and only if ad−bc 6=
0.

5. Let A1 , . . . , Ar be non-zero vectors in Rn . Assume that they are mutually perpendic-

ular, i.e. Ai · Aj = 0 if i 6= j. Prove that they are linearly independent.

6. Fill in the blanks.

Let V be a vector space. Suppose that the elements v1 , . . . , vn of V generate V and
are linearly independent. Then {v1 , . . . , vn } is called a . . . . . . of V and n is called the
. . . . . . of V .

7. Find three different bases for R2 .

8. Let V be the vector space of all functions of a variable t.

(a) Show that the following set of functions are linearly independent.
{1, t}, {t, t2 }, {t, sin t},
{cos t, sin t}, {cos t, cos 2t}, {sin t, et , t2 }.

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 (b) Determine whether the following set of functions are linearly dependent or inde-
pendent.
{cos2 t, sin2 t, 1}, {1 + t2 , 2t, 1 + t + t2 }.
(c) Consider the subspace of V with ordered basis B = {cos t, sin t}. What are the
coordinates of the function f (t) = 2 cos t − 3 sin t w.r.t. this basis ? What are the
coordinates of Df (t) = f 0 (t) w.r.t. B ?

9. Consider the vector space of all functions defined for t > 0. Show that the following
pairs of functions are linearly independent.
(i) {et , ln t}, (ii) {t, 1/t}.

10. Show that the set of vectors {(1, 3, 3)t , (−1, 1, 2)t , (1, 1, 1)t } forms a basis for R3 . Find
the coordinates of the following vectors w.r.t. this ordered basis.
(2, 2, 3)t , (−1, 0, −1)t .

11. Fill in the blanks.

(a) Consider f = 1, g = x, h = x2 in the vector space of all functions of a variable x.

Then Span{f, g, h} = . . . . . . , it has a basis . . . . . . and its dimension is . . . . . . .
(b) A basis for the space of all 3 × 3 symmetric matrices is . . . . . . . Its dimension is
.......
Do the same for the spaces of all 3 × 3 (i) diagonal, (ii) skew-symmetric and (iii)
lower triangular matrices.

12. Show that {x, 3x2 , 5 + x} is a basis for the vector space of all polynomials of degree
≤ 2. What about {2x, x2 − 3x, 2x2 } ?

13. Fill in the blanks.

A subset {v1 , . . . , vn } of a vector space V is called a maximal linearly independent
set if {v1 , . . . , vn } is . . . . . . . . . and given any element w of V , the set {v1 , . . . , vn , w} is
.........

14. Let V be a finite dimensional vector space.

(a) Let dim V = n (i.e., V has a basis consisting of n elements). Prove that any
subset of V containing more than n vectors is linearly dependent.
(b) Let {v1 , . . . , vn } be a maximal linearly independent set of vectors in V . Prove
that {v1 , . . . , vn } is a basis of V .
(c) Let dim V = n. Prove that any spanning set of V containing n elements is a basis
of V .

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 (d) Let dim V = n. Prove that any linearly independent set of n vectors in V is a
basis of V .
(e) Prove that any two bases of V have the same number of elements.
(f) Let dim V = n and W be a subspace, also of dimension n. Prove that W = V .

15. (Reading exercise) Read the proofs of the following results from the text book.

(a) Let V be an n-dimensional vector space. Let r be a positive integer with r < n
and S = {v1 , . . . , vr } be a linearly independent set of elements of V . Then S can
be extended to a basis of V .
(b) Let V be an n-dimensional vector space. Let W be a subspace of V which does
not consist of 0 alone. Then W has a basis and dim W ≤ n.
( ! )
x −x 
16. Consider the subspaces W1 =
y z x, y, z ∈ R and
( ! )
a b 
W2 = a, b, c ∈ R of the vector space of all 2 × 2 matrices. Find the
−a c 
dimensions of W1 , W2 , W1 + W2 and W1 ∩ W2 .

17. (a) Let V be a subspace of R2 . What are the possible dimensions for V ? Show that
if V 6= R2 , then either V = {0} or V is a straight line passing through the origin.
(b) Let V be a subspace of R3 . What are the possible dimensions for V ? Show that
if V 6= R3 , then either V = {0}, or V is a straight line passing through the origin,
or V is a plane passing through the origin.

18. (Vandermonde determinant)

 
 1 1 1 
 
Prove that  a b c  = (b − a)(c − a)(c − b)
 
 
 a2 b2 c2 

CO 1 1, 6, 8(c), 13, 18
CO 2 3-a,b,c ; 7, 11, 16
CO 3 2, 3(d), 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17
CO 4 3-a,b,c; 4, 14