[Math] Vector in a linearly dependent set is a linear combination of other vectors in that set

linear algebra

I have a true/false HW problem:

If $S$ = {$v_{1}$, $v_{2}$, . . . $v_{n}$} is linearly dependent then any $v_{k}$, inf ≥ k ≥ 1, is a combination of the other vectors in $S$.

The setup I did is:

$v_{k}$ = -($a_1/a_k$)$v_1$ – ($a_2/a_k$)$v_2$ – . . . – ($a_{k-1}/a_k$)$v_{k-1}$ – ($a_{k+1}/a_k$)$v_{k+1}$ – . . . – ($a_{n}/a_k$)$v_{n}$

Since at least one of the $a$ terms must not be zero because $S$ is linearly dependent $v_{k}$ seems to me to be possibly the linear combination of the other terms in $S$. However, I know that linear dependence requires only one of the vectors to be a combination of the preceding vectors in its vector space, so that leads me to believe that while $v_k$ could be a linear combination of the other vectors in $S$ it doesn't need to be. I don't have a good idea on where to go from here.

Best Answer

No. Let $S:=\{0,v\}$ where $v\ne 0$. It is linearly dependent, but $v\ne \lambda\cdot 0$.

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