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Solutions To Home-Work 5

1. If two planes W1 and W2 in R3 intersect, their intersection W1 ∩ W2 is a line through the origin consisting of multiples of a basis vector v of the intersection. 2. Three conditions on subspaces W1 and W2 of a vector space V are equivalent: (a) their dimensions sum to the dimension of V and their intersection is {0}, (b) the union of any bases of W1 and W2 is a basis of V, and (c) every vector in V can be uniquely expressed as the sum of a vector in W1 and a vector in W2. 3. The problem asks the reader to verify certain claims without proof.

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Haripriya Radhakrishnan
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34 views

Solutions To Home-Work 5

1. If two planes W1 and W2 in R3 intersect, their intersection W1 ∩ W2 is a line through the origin consisting of multiples of a basis vector v of the intersection. 2. Three conditions on subspaces W1 and W2 of a vector space V are equivalent: (a) their dimensions sum to the dimension of V and their intersection is {0}, (b) the union of any bases of W1 and W2 is a basis of V, and (c) every vector in V can be uniquely expressed as the sum of a vector in W1 and a vector in W2. 3. The problem asks the reader to verify certain claims without proof.

Uploaded by

Haripriya Radhakrishnan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Solutions to Home-work 5

1. If dim(V ) = n, then the assumption dim(W1 ) + dim(W2 ) > n


is seen to imply that dim(W1 W2 ) = dim(W1 ) + dim(W2 )
dim(W1 + W2 ) > 0 (since W1 + W2 being a subspace of V can
have dimension at most n), and hence W1 W2 6= {0}.
If W1 , W2 are planes through the origin in R3 , they are twodimensional subspaces; if they are distinct subspaces, then we
may conclude from the last paragraph that dim(W1 W2 ) > 0.
On the other hand, if {u, v} is a basis for W1 and if w W2 \W1 ,
it is easy to see that {u, v, w} must be linearly independent and
hence a basis for R3 . We may conclude that W1 +W2 = R3 , and
that W1 W2 is one-dimensional. If {v} is a basis for W1 W2 ,
we find that W1 W2 = Rv = {v : R} is the line through
the origin, consisting of multiples of v.
2. Let us prove the following
Assertion: The following conditions on subspaces W1 , W2 of a
finite dimensional vector space V are equivalent:
(a) dim(W1 ) + dim(W2 ) = dim(V ) and W1 W2 = {0}
(b) If Bi is any basis for Wi , for i = 1, 2, then B1 B2 is a
basis for V .
(c) Every vector v V is uniquely expressible as v = w1 + w2
with wi Wi , i = 1, 2.
Proof of assertion: (a) (c) : If Bi is a basis for Wi (so
dim(Wi ) = |Bi |), we need to show that B = B1 B2 is a basis
for V . First, notice that dim(W1 +W2 ) = dim(W1 )+dim(W2 )
dim(W1 W2 ) = dim(V ) so we must have V = W1 + W2 ,
so every v V is indeed expressible as v = w1 + w2 with
wi Wi , i = 1, 2. If also v = w
1 + w
2 with w
i Wi , i = 1, 2,
then we must have w1 w
1 = w
2 w2 W1 W2 = {0} and
hence wi = w
i , i = 1, 2 and such a decomposition is unique.
(c) (b) is a consequence of the fact that each wi Wi is
uniquely expressible as a linear combination of vectors in Bi ,
for both i = 1, 2.
(b) (c) and (c) (a) are obvious.
3. This problem is a routine vereification which may be safely left
to the reader.

4. (a) If xi Wi , i R, i = 1, 2, then 1 x1 + 2 x2 Wi since


the subspace Wi is closed under forming linear combinations, for each i = 1, 2, and thus 1 x1 + 2 x2 W1 W2 .
As for the second assertion, the definition of intersection
shows that in fact W1 W2 contains any subset which is
contained in both Wi , i = 1, 2.
(i)

(i)

(i)

(b) If x(i) = w1 + w2 W1 + W2 , with wj


i R for i, j = 1, 2, then observe that
2
X

i x(i) =

2
X
i=1

i=1

2
X

Wj , and if

(i)

wj

j=1

2
2 X
X

(i)

i wj

j=1 i=1

2
X

(i)

i w1 +

i=1

2
X

(i)

i w2

i=1

W1 + W2 ,
thus verifying that W1 + W2 is closed under forming linear combinations and is hence a subspace. The second
assertion is obvious.

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