Dimension of vector space (count 0 or not)

595 Views Asked by At

Do you count 0 in the dimension of a vector space?

Eg. If $V_\lambda$ is the eigenspace of a certain function $f$, which has eigenvectors corresponding to $\lambda$ of $v_1, v_2, v_3$ then the basis of the eigenspace will be

$\{0,v_1, v_2, v_3\}$

Does this have dimension 3 or 4?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

6
On BEST ANSWER

The dimension of a finite-dimensional vector space is defined to be the size of any basis of the space. The definition of a basis is a linearly independent spanning set.

If you add $0$ to any list of vectors the list becomes linearly dependent and hence is no longer a basis.

In the case of eigenspaces, which are spanned by eigenvectors, $0$ is not actually an eigenvector and does therefore not belong into the basis. Therefore, if $v_1, v_2, v_3$ are eigenvectors, the dimension of the corresponding eigen space is $3$.