In linear algebra, linear combinations are the addition of scalar multiples of vectors. We introduce some very important definitions below.

  • Span — for some set of vectors in , we define their span as the set of all linear combinations of the vectors in the set.
    • How do we determine if a vector is in the span? We can row reduce .
    • The span is the image of the linear transformation described by the set.
  • Linear independence — we say a set of vectors is linearly independent if the solution to the equation is the trivial solution .