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In mathematics, the linear span (also called the linear hull [1] or just span) of a set of elements of a vector space is the smallest linear subspace of that contains . It is the set of all finite linear combinations of the elements of S , [ 2 ] and the intersection of all linear subspaces that contain S . {\displaystyle S.}
Such infinite linear combinations do not always make sense; we call them convergent when they do. Allowing more linear combinations in this case can also lead to a different concept of span, linear independence, and basis. The articles on the various flavors of topological vector spaces go into more detail about these.
In linear algebra, the column space (also called the range or image) of a matrix A is the span (set of all possible linear combinations) of its column vectors. The column space of a matrix is the image or range of the corresponding matrix transformation. Let be a field.
The expression on the right is called a linear combination of the vectors (2, 5, −1) and (3, −4, 2). These two vectors are said to span the resulting subspace. In general, a linear combination of vectors v 1, v 2, ... , v k is any vector of the form + +.
This concept is fundamental in Euclidean geometry and affine geometry, because the set of all affine combinations of a set of points forms the smallest affine space containing the points, exactly as the linear combinations of a set of vectors form their linear span. The affine combinations commute with any affine transformation T in the sense that
A set of vectors is said to be affinely dependent if at least one of the vectors in the set can be defined as an affine combination of the others. Otherwise, the set is called affinely independent. Any affine combination is a linear combination; therefore every affinely dependent set is linearly dependent.
In linear algebra, the closure of a non-empty subset of a vector space (under vector-space operations, that is, addition and scalar multiplication) is the linear span of this subset. It is a vector space by the preceding general result, and it can be proved easily that is the set of linear combinations of elements of the subset.
For example, the collection of all possible linear combinations of the vectors on the left-hand side (LHS) is called their span, and the equations have a solution just when the right-hand vector is within that span. If every vector within that span has exactly one expression as a linear combination of the given left-hand vectors, then any ...