consistent system
a system of linear equations with at least one solution
inconsistent system
a system of linear equations with no solution
row echelon form
a matrix such that: any all zero rows are on the bottom all leading entries are to the left of any leading entries below them
reduced row echelon form
a matrix such that: any all zero rows are on the bottom all leading entries are to the left of any leading entries below them all leading entries are 1s any column with a leading 1 has zeroes elsewhere
spanning set
the set of all linear combinations of a set of vectors in Rn
linearly independent
a set of vectors such that the only solution to the linear combination of all vectors equal to the zero vector is the trivial solution
symmetric matrix
a matrix whose transpose is equal to itself
elementary matrix
a matrix that is formed by performing one elementary row operation on the identity matrix
fundamental theorem of invertible matrices
if A is a n x n matrix, the following are equivalent A is invertible A x = b has a unique solution for all b in Rn A x = 0 has only the trivial solution the reduced echelon form of A is the identity A is a product of elementary matrices
subspace
a set of vectors such that zero belongs to the set and the set is closed under linear combinations
row space
the subspace of Rn spanned by the rows of A
column space
the subspace of Rn spanned by the columns of A
null space
the subspace spanned by solutions to the equation A x = 0
basis
a set of vectors in S such that the vectors span S and are linearly independent
standard basis
the standard unit vectors for Rn
the basis theorem
any two bases for S have the same number of vectors
dimension
the number of vectors in a basis of a subspace
rank
the dimension of the row and column spaces of a matrix
nullity
the dimension of a null space
rank nullity theorem
the rank and nullity of a matrix sum to five the number of columns
kernel
the set of vectors that are sent to the zero vector by a linear transformation
range
the set of vectors that are images of vectors in the domain of a linear transformation
eigenvalue
a scalar that multiplies a vector and gives the same result as a matrix A multiplying the vector
eigenvector
vector corresponding to an eigenvalue
algebraic multiplicity
power of the eigenvalue in the characteristic polynomial
geometric multiplicity
dimension of eigenspace
similar matrix
a matrix such that A = P-1 B P