Linear Algebra Notes

Arnold Chonai
September 24, 2016
Abstract
These are my linear algebra notes arent they cool af.

Introduction

In these notes I will present the theorems from the textbook and also elaborate
on what they mean and how to apply them in problems. The main purpose of
these notes is to have one place with all the important info that needs to be
known.With that being said, in order to truly understand the material one must
do practice problems on their own outside of these notes as well.

2
2.1

Chapter 1
Section 1.1: Systems of Linear Equations

A linear equation with the variables x1 , x2 , . . . xn is an equation that can be

re-written as:
a1 x1 + a2 x2 + . . . + an xn = b
(1)
Geometrically, we can model a system of two equations and two variables as
two separate lines in <2 . Their solution then will be an intersection of two lines,
unless of course they are the same line or are two parallel lines in which they
never intersect.The situation is analogous with 3 planes in <3 . All 3 can either
intersect at one point, intersect in one line, all be the same plane, or they can
all be different parallel planes in <3 which never intersect. In any case, this
discussion has lead us to an important theorem about linear system solution
sets.
Theorem 1. Let there be a linear system such that a1 x1 +a2 x2 +. . .+an xn = b.
For this system there exists either one solution, zero solutions, or infinitely many
solutions.
A system with one, or infinite solutions is known as a consistent system. A
system with zero solutions is inconsistent
Proof. Following the geometric interpretation earlier, we can model a system of
equations in <2 like so:

2.2

Section 1.2

There are two types of matrix forms that you should know. That is echelon
form and reduced row echelon form. Here are the definitions. A matrix is
in echelon form if:
1. All non-zero rows are above zero rows in the matrix.
2. Each leading entry in a row is to the right of the leading entry in the row
above it.
3. Every entry below a leading of its column is a zero.
Reduced row echelon form has the additional following conditions:
1. The leading entry in each row is 1.
2. The leading entry of a row is the only non-zero row in its column.
Any non-zero entry in a matrix that is not in a pivot position corresponds to a
free variable. Whenever a consistent matrix has any free variables, it immediately has infinitely many solutions. These leads us to the following important
theorem:
Theorem 2 (Basic Existence and Uniqueness Theorem). A linear system is
consistent only if the matrix has no row of the form
[0, 0, . . . , b]
with b non-zero. If the system is consistent than it could have only one solution
if there are no free variables. This is a unique solution. The other possibility is
it could have infinite solutions if it it has at least one free variable. This solution
is not unique.

2.3

Section 1.4: The Matrix Equation

a1
a2

M = .. is a column vector within <n . Now we will produce the following

.
an

definition.
For a set of vectors [v~1 , v~2 , . . . , v~p ] within <n , the Spanv~1 , v~2 , . . . , v~p is defined
as:
[c1 v~1 + c2 v~2 + . . . + cp v~p = b]
where b is any linear combination of those vectors. To see if a vector is a solution
to a system you can see if it is in the span of the system or not.
By how we defined span above, if a vector is a linear combination of other
vectors, then it is in the span of those vectors.
2

If we define A as an mxn matrix with column vectors [a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . , an ]

that each have m amount of entries, and ~x is in <n then the linear combination
of the columns of A, with weights in ~x, is equal to the product of A and ~x.

x1
x2

(2)
A~x = [a1 , a2 , a3 , . . . , an ] . = a1 x1 + a2 x2 + . . . + an xn
..
xn
Now that we have introduced equation 2, and defined span as a linear combination of vectors, we can introduce a very critical theorem.
Theorem 3 ( Most important damn theorem in the book). Let A be a particular
mxn matrix. Then the following four statements are logically equivalent, so
if one of them is true, then all of them must be true. If one is false, all of them
must be false.
1.
2.
3.
4.

For every ~b in <m the equation A~x = ~b has a solution.

~b is a linear combination of the columns of A.
The columns of A span <m .
A has a pivot position in each row of its m number of rows.

Now I will begin to explain the reasoning behind each part of the theorem.
Observe that all the parts are saying the same thing effectively, but especially
parts 1, 2, and 3. Part 1 is saying that for any possible ~b the linear combination
of the column vectors in A and the weights in ~x can equal it. Therefore ~b is a
linear combination of them and is within their span which is exactly what parts
2 and 3 say. For part 4 observe that ~b is a column vector with m number of
entries. That number m corresponds to the m number of solutions from A.
If A is to have m number of solutions, then it also needs an m number of
pivots because each pivot position corresponds to exactly one variable solution.
Since A in an mxn matrix, then it needs a pivot position in each row. Also
notice, that if it has a pivot position in every row of its m number of rows,
then it has m number of linearly independent columns. That means it has all
the vectors it needs to span <m . If it spans <m then parts 1,2, and 3 are proven
true again.

2.4

Section 1.5: Solutions of Linear Systems

A system of equations is said to be homogeneous if it can be written in the

form A~x = 0. These equations always have at least one solution, namely, ~x = 0.
This solution is known as the trivial solution. Any other solution to this system
is known as the non-trivial solution. Because a consistent system can only have
one or infinite solutions, we have an interesting theorem.
Theorem 4. A homogeneous system can only have a non-trivial solution, if it
has a free variable. Because if it has a free variable then it has infinite solutions
including the trivial case.