Exercise 2.4.3. For each of the two matrices below give the dimension and find a basis for each of their four subspaces:
Answer: We first consider the column spaces and
. The matrix
has two pivots and therefore rank
; this is the dimension of the column space of
. Since the pivots are in the first and second columns those columns are a basis for
:
Note that the third column of is equal to -2 times the first column plus the second column, and the fourth column is equal to the first column.
Doing Gaussian elimination on the matrix (i.e., by subtracting the first row from the third) produces
, so the rank of
and the dimension of the column space of
are also 2. Also, since the first and second columns of
(the pivot columns) are a basis for
the first and second columns of
are a basis for
:
Note that as with the third column of
is equal to -2 times the first column plus the second column, and the fourth column is equal to the first column.
Turning to the row spaces, since the rows of are linear combinations of the rows of
and vice versa, the row spaces
and
are the same. Per the discussion on page 91 the nonzero rows of
, the vectors
and
, form a basis for
. Since
these vectors also form a basis for
. The dimension of each row space is 2.
We now turn to the nullspaces and
consisting of the solutions to the equations
and
respectively. As noted above, if we do Gaussian elimination on
(i.e., by subtracting the first row from the third row) then we obtain the matrix
so that any solution to
is a solution to
and vice versa. We therefore have
and just need to calculate one of the two.
In particular for we must find
such that
Since the pivots of are in the first and second columns we have
and
as basic variables and
and
as free variables.
From the second row of the system above we have or
. From the first row we then have
or
. Setting each of the free variables
and
to 1 in turn (and the other free variable to zero) we have the following set of vectors as solutions to the homogeneous equation
and a basis for the null space of
:
Since the above vectors also form a basis for the nullspace of
. The dimension of the two nullspaces
and
is 2 (the number of columns of each matrix minus the rank, or
).
Finally we turn to finding a basis for each of the left nullspaces and
. As discussed on page 95 there are two possible approaches to doing this. One way to find the left nullspace of
is to look at the operations on the rows of
needed to produce zero rows in the resulting echelon matrix
in the process of Gaussian elimination; the coefficients used to carry out those operations make up the basis vectors of the left nullspace
.
In particular, the one and only zero row in is produced by subtracting the first row of
from the third row of
, with no contribution from the second row; the coefficients for this operation are -1 (for the first row), 0 (for the second row), and 1 (for the third). The vector
is therefore a basis for the left nullspace (which has dimension 1). We can test this by multiplying
on the left by the transpose of this vector:
The left nullspace of can be found in a similar manner: Since
is already in echelon form with a third row of zeroes, the step of Gaussian elimination to produce that row would be equivalent to multiplying the first row by zero and the second row by zero and then adding them to the third (zero) row; the coefficients for this operation are 0 (for the first row), 0 (for the second row), and 1 (for the third row). The vector
is therefore a basis for the left nullspace (which also has dimension 1). As with
we can test this by multiplying
on the left by the transpose of this vector:
An alternate approach to find the left nullspace of is to explicitly solve
or
Gaussian elimination on proceeds as follows: First, subtract two times the first row from the second:
and then subtract the first row from the fourth row:
Finally, subtract the second row from the third row:
We thus have and
as basic variables (since the pivots are in the first and second columns) and
as a free variable. From the first row of the final matrix we have
or
in the homogeneous case, and from the second row of the final matrix we have
or
. Setting the free variable
then gives us the vector
as a basis for the left nullspace of . The left nullspace of
has dimension 1 (the number of rows of
minus its rank, or
).
Similarly we can also find the left nullspace of by solving the homogeneous system
or
Gaussian elimination on proceeds as follows: First, subtract two times the first row from the second:
and then subtract the first row from the fourth row:
Finally, subtract the second row from the third row:
We thus have and
as basic variables (since the pivots are in the first and second columns) and
as a free variable. From the first row of the final matrix we have
or
in the homogeneous case, and from the second row of the final matrix we have
or
. Setting the free variable
then gives us the vector
as a basis for the left nullspace of . As with
the left nullspace of
has dimension 1 (the number of rows of
minus its rank, or
).
As with exercise 2.4.2, note that the row space of is equal to the row space of
because the rows of
are linear combinations of the rows of
and vice versa. Similarly the nullspace of
is equal to the nullspace of
for the same reason.
UPDATE: Corrected two typos involving the equations for the left nullspace; thanks to Lucas for finding the errors.
NOTE: This continues a series of posts containing worked out exercises from the (out of print) book Linear Algebra and Its Applications, Third Edition by Gilbert Strang.
If you find these posts useful I encourage you to also check out the more current Linear Algebra and Its Applications, Fourth Edition, Dr Strang’s introductory textbook Introduction to Linear Algebra, Fourth Edition
and the accompanying free online course, and Dr Strang’s other books
.
For the solutions of the left nullspace I believe the zero matrix is a typo. The product of a 4×2 and a 3×1 should be 4×1, not 4×2.
4×3 and a 3×1*
Thanks much for finding these errors! I’ve updated the post to correct them.