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Rank of a system of vectors

Let V  be a vector space and let

b1,b2,,bn be a system (multiset) of vectors from V

(multiset because the vectors bi are not required to be distinct).

Definition: 

a) We will say that the system (1) has rank rN if there exist r linearly independent vectors from (1), and every other vector from (1) can be represented as a linear combination of these r vectors. 

b) We will say that the system (1) has rank 0 if bi=0 (the zero vector) for every i=1,2,,n.

The rank of the system of vectors (1) is denoted by r(b1,b2,,bn).

Proposition 1: The rank of the system (1) is equal to the maximal number of linearly independent vectors in the system (1)

Proposition 2: r(b1,b2,,bn)=dim span(b1,b2,,bn)

Proposition 3: If r(b1,b2,,bn)=r and b is a vector, then  r(b1,b2,,bn,b)=r  or  r(b1,b2,,bn,b)=r+1 

More specifically: 

A) r(b1,b2,,bn,b)=r(b1,b2,,bn) 

if and only if b is a linear combination of the vectors bi

B) r(b1,b2,,bn,b)=r(b1,b2,,bn)+1 

if and only if b is not a linear combination of the vectors bi


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