Question about row/column/nullspace

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Homework Statement


If we have a 3x5 matrix:

The row space is in r5, the col space is in r3, and the nullspace is in r3 correct?
Because you would need 5 components to be a member of r5 so the col space cannot be a member of r5 correct?

Here is the question: http://prntscr.com/evo91g

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution


Am I getting something fundamentally wrong here? Or is the question just wrong? I believe I'm right for reasons mentioned above.
 
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Arnoldjavs3 said:

Homework Statement


If we have a 3x5 matrix:

The row space is in r5, the col space is in r3, and the nullspace is in r3 correct?
Because you would need 5 components to be a member of r5 so the col space cannot be a member of r5 correct?

Here is the question: http://prntscr.com/evo91g

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution


Am I getting something fundamentally wrong here? Or is the question just wrong? I believe I'm right for reasons mentioned above.

The nullspace is a subspace of ##\mathbb{R}^5##, right? Therefore the nullspace is not in ##\mathbb{R}^3##. For the rest you seem correct. It seems the question is wrong.
 
Math_QED said:
The nullspace is a subspace of ##\mathbb{R}^5##, right? Therefore the nullspace is not in ##\mathbb{R}^3##. For the rest you seem correct. It seems the question is wrong.

Why would it be in r5 though? Each vector in the nullspace will only have 3 components
 
Arnoldjavs3 said:
Why would it be in r5 though? Each vector in the nullspace will only have 3 components

Can you give me your definition of null space?
 
Math_QED said:
Can you give me your definition of null space?

The subspace of linear combinations that make your system equal to 0?

edit: Now that I think about it, when A is a 3x5 matrix, you need a 5x1 matrix vector X. Since X is 5x1, that means the nullspace is in r5 since X represents all vectors inside the nullspace?
 
Arnoldjavs3 said:
The subspace of linear combinations that make your system equal to 0?

edit: Now that I think about it, when A is a 3x5 matrix, you need a 5x1 matrix vector X. Since X is 5x1, that means the nullspace is in r5 since X represents all vectors inside the nullspace?

The null space and the row space of a matrix will always be sub-spaces of the same vector space (why?).The column space and row space of a matrix will be sub-spaces of the vector space whose dimension is the number of elements in the vector. So if we have a 12x23 matrix, its row space is a sub-space of R23 and its column space is a sub-space of R12. From here I assume you can figure out the correct solution.
 
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Adgorn said:
The null space and the row space of a matrix will always be sub-spaces of the same vector space (why?).The column space and row space of a matrix will be sub-spaces of the vector space whose dimension is the number of elements in the vector. So if we have a 12x23 matrix, its row space is a sub-space of R23 and its column space is a sub-space of R12. From here I assume you can figure out the correct solution.
Yup! Makes sense now. Just find it interesting that I understand the nullspace and can compute it easily but I still abstract details like that.
 
Arnoldjavs3 said:
The subspace of linear combinations that make your system equal to 0?

edit: Now that I think about it, when A is a 3x5 matrix, you need a 5x1 matrix vector X. Since X is 5x1, that means the nullspace is in r5 since X represents all vectors inside the nullspace?

Yes, your reasoning is correct. That's a very bad definition of null space, though.

A better definition would be: Let ##A## be an ##m \times n## matrix.

##Null(A) := \{x \in \mathbb{R}^n| Ax = 0\}##

Or if you are familiar with linear mappings: Let ##f: V \rightarrow W## be a linear mapping:

##Ker(f) := \{x \in V|f(x) = 0\}##
 
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