Link to this document's Jupyter Notebook

In order to successfully complete this assignment you need to participate both individually and in groups during class. If you attend class in-person then have one of the instructors check your notebook and sign you out before leaving class. If you are attending asynchronously, turn in your assignment using D2L no later than 11:59pm on the day of class. See links at the end of this document for access to the class timeline for your section.


In order to successfully complete this assignment you need to participate both individually and in groups during class. If you attend class in-person then have one of the instructors check your notebook and sign you out before leaving class. If you are attending asyncronously, turn in your assignment using D2L no later than 11:59pm on the day of class. See links at the end of this document for access to the class timeline for your section.

In-Class Assignment: Fundamental Spaces

Classic picture of the four fundamental spaces. Please see text for detailed description.

Image from: https://kevinbinz.com/2017/02/20/linear-algebra/

Agenda for today's class (80 minutes)

  1. (20 minutes) Pre-class assignment review
  2. (20 minutes) Four Fundamental Spaces
  3. (20 minutes) Practice Example

1. Pre-class assignment review


2. Four Fundamental Subspaces

The four fundamental subspaces

Where are these spaces for a $m\times n$ matrix $A$?

Calculating basis and dimension

For $\mathcal{R}(A)$

For $\mathcal{N}(A)$

For $\mathcal{C}(A) = \mathcal{R}(A^\top)$

For $\mathcal{N}(A^\top)$


3. Practice Example:

Consider the linear transformation defined by the following matrix $A$.

$$A = \left[ \begin{matrix} 1 & 2 & 3 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 & 2 & 1 \\ 1 & 2 & 3 & 1 \end{matrix} \right] $$

Question: What is the reduced row echelon form of $A$? You can use sympy.

Question: Now let's calculate the row space of $A$. Note that the row space is defined by a linear combination of the non-zero row vectors in the reduced row echelon matrix:

Put your answer to the above question here

Question: What is the rank of matrix $A$? You should know the rank by inspecting the reduced row echelon form. Find a numpy or sympy function that you can use to verify your answer?

Question: Using the reduced row echelon form define the leading variables in terms of the free variables for the homogeneous equation.

Put your answer to the above question here

Question: The solution to the above question defines the nullspace of $A$ (aka the Kernel). Use the sympy.nullspace function to verify your answer.

Question: Now let's calculate the range of $A$ (column space of $A$). Note that the range is spanned by the column vectors of $A$. Transpose $A$ and calculate the reduced row echelon form of the transposed matrix like we did above.

Question: The nonzero row vectors of the above solution will give a basis for the range (or $\mathcal{C}(A)$). Write the range of $A$ as a linear combination of these nonzero vectors:

Put your answer to the above question here.

Question: Finally, using the reduced row echelon form for $A^\top$ define the leading variables in terms of the free variables and define the null space of $A^\top$.

Put your answer to the above question here.


Congratulations, we're done!

If you attend class in-person then have one of the instructors check your notebook and sign you out before leaving class. If you are attending asynchronously, turn in your assignment using D2L.

Course Resources:

Written by Dr. Dirk Colbry, Michigan State University Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.