MTH-812 Advance Engineering Mathematics

Four Fundamental Spaces

Dr. Yasir Ali (yali@ceme.nust.edu.pk)

DBS&H, CEME-NUST

October 19, 2017

Dr. Yasir Ali (yali@ceme.nust.edu.pk) MTH-812 Advance Engineering Mathematics

Column, Row Spaces
Consider an m n matrix

a11 a12 a13 a1n
a21
a22 a23 a2n

a31
a32 a33 a3n

.. .. .. .. ..
. . . . .
am1 am2 am3 amn

The vectors r1 = [ a11 a12 a13 a1n ] ,

r2 = [ a21 a22 a2n ] , rm = [ am1 am2 amn ] in Rn
obtained from the rows of A are called the row vectors of A.

a11 a12 a1n
a21 a22 a2n
The vectors c1 . , c2 . , , cn . in Rm obtained

.
. . . .
.
am1 am2 amn
from the columns of A are called the column vectors of A.
Dr. Yasir Ali (yali@ceme.nust.edu.pk) MTH-812 Advance Engineering Mathematics
Let A be an m n matrix.
1 The subspace of Rn spanned by the row vectors of A is called the
row space of A.
2 The subspace of Rm spanned by the column vectors of A is called
the column space of A.

Dr. Yasir Ali (yali@ceme.nust.edu.pk) MTH-812 Advance Engineering Mathematics

1 How does one find the row space of a matrix A?
2 How does one find the column space of a matrix A?
3 Is there a relationship between them?
4 Is there a relationship between them and the null space of a matrix
A?
5 Since matrices are closely related to solving systems of linear
equations, is there a relationship between the row space, column
space, null space of a matrix A and the linear system Ax = b?

Dr. Yasir Ali (yali@ceme.nust.edu.pk) MTH-812 Advance Engineering Mathematics

 1 How does one find the row space of a matrix A?
2 How does one find the column space of a matrix A?
3 Is there a relationship between them?
4 Is there a relationship between them and the null space of a matrix
A?
5 Since matrices are closely related to solving systems of linear
equations, is there a relationship between the row space, column
space, null space of a matrix A and the linear system Ax = b?
It is important to note here that

Dr. Yasir Ali (yali@ceme.nust.edu.pk) MTH-812 Advance Engineering Mathematics

 1 How does one find the row space of a matrix A?
2 How does one find the column space of a matrix A?
3 Is there a relationship between them?
4 Is there a relationship between them and the null space of a matrix
A?
5 Since matrices are closely related to solving systems of linear
equations, is there a relationship between the row space, column
space, null space of a matrix A and the linear system Ax = b?
It is important to note here that solving Ax = b amounts to solving
x1 c1 + x2 c2 + + xn cn = b. So, we see that for the system to have a
solution, b must be in the span of {c1 , c2 , , cn }.

Dr. Yasir Ali (yali@ceme.nust.edu.pk) MTH-812 Advance Engineering Mathematics