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Image and Kernel, Image, Kernel, Existence of Zero, Scalar, Multiplication, Vector, Subspace, Linear, Function, Matrix, Basis, Projection, Derivative, Column Vector, Linear Algebra, Lecture Notes, Andrei Antonenko, Department of Applied Math and Statistics, Stony Brook University, New York, United States of America.
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Last lecture we studied image and kernel of a linear function. Now we will prove one of the properties of image and kernel. First letās consider kernel. Let f : V ā U be a linear function, and let its kernel be Ker f ā set of all elements v from V which map to 0. Then we can state the following properties of it.
Existence of zero. The zero vector 0 belongs to kernel of f , since f ( 0 ) = 0 ā maps to 0 , so 0 is in kernel.
Summation. Let vectors v and u belong to kernel, so, f (v) = 0 and f (u) = 0. Then
f (v + u) = f (v) + f (u) = 0 ,
and thus u + v belongs to Ker f.
Multiplication by a scalar. Let vector v belongs to the kernel of f. Then we know that f (v) = 0. Now for any constant k we have:
f (kv) = kf (v) = k Ā· 0 = 0 ,
thus kv belongs to Ker f.
So, we proved the following theorem:
Theorem 1.1. The kernel of linear function f : V ā U is a vector subspace in V.
Example 1.2. Consider the projection function f (x, y, z) = (x, y, 0). Itās kernel consists of vectors of the form (0, 0 , c) for any constant c. Geometrically speaking, this is a z-axis in the 3-dimensional space. This is a vector subspace.
Now letās consider the image. Let f : V ā U be a linear function, and itās image Im f is the set of all vectors from U where we can get by applying a function to vectors from V. Weāll state some properties of it.
Existence of zero. The zero vector is in Im f since by taking f ( 0 ) we can get to 0 : f ( 0 ) = 0.
Addition. Let u 1 and u 2 be elements from the image of f , so there exist v 1 and v 2 from V such that f (v 1 ) = u 1 and f (v 2 ) = u 2. Now we can consider the element v 1 + v 2 from V. We have: f (v 1 + v 2 ) = f (v 1 ) + f (v 2 ) = u 1 + u 2 , and thus u 1 + u 2 belongs to Im f.
Multiplication by a scalar. Let u be a vector from Im f. Then there exists a vector v from V such that f (v) = u. So, letās consider an element kv for any constant k. We have:
f (kv) = kf (v) = ku,
thus ku belongs to Im f.
As for the kernel, we proved the following theorem:
Theorem 1.3. The image of a linear function f : V ā U is a vector subspace in U.
Example 1.4. Consider the projection function f (x, y, z) = (x, y, 0). Itās image consists of vectors of the form (x, y, 0) for all x, y ā R. Geometrically speaking, this is an xy-plane in the 3-dimensional space. This is a vector subspace.
In order to continue studies of image and kernel, we would like to know more about linear functions.
2 Matrix of a linear function
When we studied linear function for the first time we considered the following example. If A is an m Ć n matrix, then we can define a linear function FA : Rn^ ā Rm^ by the following formula: FA(x) = Ax for any vector x ā Rn. In this part we can see, that it is one of the general cases of linear functions. Letās consider any linear function f : V ā W. Let vectors e 1 , e 2 ,... , en form a basis in the space V. And let we know the values f (e 1 ), f (e 2 ),... , f (en). Then we can compute the function f for any vector from V using only these given values. To show it letās note, that is eiās form a basis, then any vector v from V can be represented as a linear combination of them:
v = a 1 e 1 + a 2 e 2 + Ā· Ā· Ā· + anen.
Now letās show how to compute the value f (v):
f (v) = f (a 1 e 1 + a 2 e 2 + Ā· Ā· Ā· + anen) = f (a 1 e 1 ) + f (a 2 e 2 ) + Ā· Ā· Ā· + f (anen) = a 1 f (e 1 ) + a 2 f (e 2 ) + Ā· Ā· Ā· + anf (en).
Example 2.3. Now letās consider the function of taking a derivative in the space P 2 : D(at^2 + bt + c) = 2at + b. Letās take the standard basis in the space of polynomials P 2 and compute values of function on basis vectors:
So, the matrix is
AD =
For example, letās take a derivative of 3 t^2 +5t+7. Weāll write this polynomial as a column-vector
ļ£
, and multiply AD by it:
 ļ£
So, the derivative of this polynomial 6 t + 5.
Letās prove that if a matrix Af is constructed using the method provided here, then
f (x) = Af x.
Proof. Letās take any vector x = (x 1 , x 2 ,... , xn) = x 1 e 1 + x 2 e 2 + Ā· Ā· Ā· + xnen. Since we have that
f (ej ) = (a 1 j , a 2 j ,... , amj )
ā j-th column of the matrix A, then
f (x) = x 1 f (e 1 ) + x 2 f (e 2 ) + Ā· Ā· Ā· + xnf (en) = x 1 (a 11 , a 21 ,... , am 1 ) + Ā· Ā· Ā· + xn(a 1 n, a 2 n,... , amn) = (a 11 x 1 + a 12 x 2 + Ā· Ā· Ā· + a 1 nxn,... , am 1 x 1 + am 2 x 2 + Ā· Ā· Ā· + amnxn) = (
j
a 1 j xj ,
j
a 2 j xj ,... ,
j
amj xj ).
Comparing this with the formal definition of matrix multiplication, we get that
f (x) = Af x.