Theorem of column space

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  1. Recall that the columns of $A$ span $\mathbb{R}^m$ iff the equation $Ax=b$ has a solution for each $b$. We can restate this fact as follows:

  2. The column space of an $m \times n$ matrix $A$ is all of $\mathbb{R}^m$ if and only if the equation $Ax = b$ has a solution for each $b$ in $\mathbb{R}^m$.

Would the meaning be changed if the "in $\mathbb{R}^m$" was removed in the definition for column space? I'm unsure of why that addition is necessary in the definition, since it wasn't needed in the definition before it.

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There is no difference in meaning here: "for each $b$" in statement (1) and "for each $b$ in $\mathbb{R}^m$" in statement (2) mean the same thing. Really both of them should say "for each $b$ in $\mathbb{R}^m$", since taken literally "for each $b$" means for every $b$ no matter what kind of object $b$ is. But this is obviously silly, and in context it is usually fine to say just "for each $b$" meaning "for each $b$ for which the statement would even make sense".