[Math] Determine if the set of vectors are linearly independent or linearly dependent

gaussian eliminationlinear algebramatrices

$$u=(1,1,1,3)$$
$$v=(1,2,1,3)$$
$$w=(1,2,3,2)$$

I need help understanding the method of how to do solve this type of problem. I understand that the concept is just to find out if the constants $k_n$ in $k_1u+k_2v+k_3w=0$ all equal zero or not.

Linear independence : this means that $k_1$, $k_2$, and $k_3$ are all equal to zero and that these are the only values that will make the overall equation equal to zero.

Linear dependence : this means that at least one of the $k$ values is not equal to zero.

This is how I tried solving this:

  1. Construct an augmented matrix $A$ out of the vectors.

$$A = \left[\begin{array}{ccc|c}1 & 1 & 1 & 0\\1 & 2 & 2 & 0\\ 1 & 1 & 3 & 0 \\ 3 & 3 & 2 & 0\end{array}\right]$$

  1. Use row operations as much as possible to get to row-echelon form

$$A = \left[\begin{array}{ccc|c}1 & 1 & 1 & 0\\0 & 1 & 1 & 0\\ 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0\end{array}\right]$$

  1. We now have the following:

$$a_1+a_2+a_3=0$$
$$a_2+a_3=0$$
$$a_3=0$$

This is where I'm confused. I don't know what these $a$ values are supposed to represent. They can't be the vector values because we had those then changed them. Are they the $k$ values I'm looking for?

I would conclude that this system of equations is linearly independent but that's assuming I even understand what the $a_n$ values are…

Best Answer

First, note that augmenting with $0$'s is superfluous, as row operations won't change a zero-column.

It would be useful to find the reduced row-echelon form of $A$. In this case $$ \DeclareMathOperator{rref}{rref}\rref A= \left[\begin{array}{rrr} 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 \end{array}\right] $$ This tells us that any scalars $a_1,a_2,a_3$ satisfying $$ a_1 u+a_2 v+a_3 w=\vec 0 $$ must also satisfy $$ a_1=a_2=a_3=0 $$ This is exactly the statement that $u,v,w$ are linearly independent!

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