5.

Vector Spaces and Inner-product spaces

5.1 Introduction

A set is a well-defined collection of objects in which we can say whether a given object
is in the collection. The fact that a is a member of a set A is denoted by a  A and we
call it as ‘a belongs to A’. The members of a set are called elements.

A set is usually specified either by listing all of its elements inside a pair of braces or by
stating the property that determines whether or not an object x belongs to the set. We
might write S = {x1, x2, …, xn}.

Example: If E is the set of even positive integers, we describe E by writing either E =

{2, 4, 6, …}
Or E = {x  x is an even integer and x > 0}.
We write 2  E when we want to say that 2 is in the set E, and -3  E to say that -3 is not
in the set E.

Notations: Some of the more important set notations are given below:
ℕ: The set of all natural numbers = {n  n is a natural number} = {1, 2, 3, …};
ℤ: The set of all integers = {x  x is an integer} = {…, -1, 0, 1, 2, …};
ℚ: The set of all rational numbers = {p/q  p, q  ℤ where q  0};
ℝ: The set of all real numbers = {x  x is a real number};
ℂ: The set of all complex numbers = {z  z is a complex number}.

Definitions: If x is not an element of A then we write x  A. Suppose A and B

are two sets. We say that A is a subset of B (written as A  B) if every element of
A is also an element of B. Two sets A and B are said to be equal (denoted by A =
B) if A is a subset of B, and B is a subset of A. A set B is a proper subset of A if B
 A (that is, B is a subset of A, but not equal to A). Trivially, every set is a subset of it
self. A set which contains no elements at all is called the Null set (denoted by ).

For example, ℕ  ℤ  ℚ  ℝ  ℂ .

Example: Consider the sets A = {x  x is an even positive integer} and B = { x  x is a

positive integer}. Then A  B.

Operations on Sets:
(i) If A and B are two sets, then the set {x / x  A or x  B} is denoted by
A  B and we call it as the union of A and B.

(ii) The set {x / x  A and x  B} is denoted by A  B and we call it as the

intersection of A and B.

(iii) If A and B are two sets, then the set {x  B / x  A} is denoted by B – A (or
B \ A) and it is called as the complement A in B.

(iv) The set that contains no members is called the empty set and it is denoted by .
Empty set is a subset of every set.

Example: Let ℝ be the universal set and suppose that A = {x  ℝ  0 < x ≤ 3} and B =
{x  ℝ  2 ≤ x < 4}. Then
A  B = {x  ℝ  2 ≤ x ≤ 3};
A  B = {x  ℝ  0 < x < 4};
A \ B = {x  ℝ  0 < x < 2};
A1 = {x  ℝ  x ≤ 0 or x > 3}.

Note: The operations of union and intersection can be defined for three or more sets in
the similar way.
A  B  C = {x / x  A or x  B or x  C} and
A  B  C = {x / x  A, x  B, x  C }

In general, let Ai be a collection of sets – one for each element i belongs to I, where
I is some set (I may be the set of all positive integers). We define
 Ai = {a / a  Ai for all i  I}, and
iI

A i = {a / a  Ai for some i  I}.

iI

A collection {Ai}i I of sets is said to be mutually disjoint if Ai  Aj =  for all i  I,

j  I such that i  j.

Example:
(i) Write Ai = {i, i+1, i+2, …} for each i  N, the set of natural numbers. Then it is
easy to observe that  Ai = N and  Ai = .
iN iI

(ii) If Bi = {2i, 2i +1} for all i  N, then {Bi}iN is a collection of mutually disjoint
sets.

Definition: Let A and B are two sets. We define their symmetric difference as the set
A  B = (A-B)  (B-A). Sometimes it is denoted by A  B.
Example: If A = {1, 2, 3, 4} and B = {1, 2, 5, 7}, then A  B = {3, 4, 5, 7}.

The set operations satisfy the following properties.

1. A  B = B  A; A  B = B  A (commutative properties)
2. A  (B  C) = (A  B)  C; A  (B  C) = (A  B)  C (Associative)
3. A  (B  C) = (A  B)  (A  C); A  (B  C) = (A  B)  (A  C) (Distributive)
4. A  A = A; A  A = A (Idempotent)
' '
5. (A ) = A
6. A  A = 
7. A  A = 
8.  = 
9. U = 
10. (A  B) = A  B ; (A  B) = A  B (D’ Morgan laws)
11. A   = A; A   = ; A  U = U ; A  U = A (Universal)

Note: Let |A| denote the number of elements in the set A.

For any two sets P and Q, we have
(i). |P  Q|  |P| + |Q| (ii). |P  Q|  min (|P|, |Q|)
(iii). |P  Q| = |P| + |Q| - 2|P  Q| where  is the symmetric difference.

Definition: (i) If S and T are two sets, then the set {(s, t) / s  S and t  T} is
called the Cartesian product of S and T
(here (a, b) = (s, t)  a = s and b = t). The Cartesian product of S and T is
denoted by S  T.
Thus S  T = {(s, t) / s  S and t  T}.
Note that if S and T are two sets, then S  T and T  S may not be equal.
(ii) If S1, S2, .., Sn are n sets, then the Cartesian product is defined as
S1  S2  …  Sn = {(s1, s2, …, sn) / si  Si for 1  i  n}.
Here the elements of S1  S2  …  Sn are called ordered n-tuples. For any two n-
tuples, we have (s1, s2, …, sn) = (t1, t2, …, tn)  si = ti, 1  i  n.

Example: If X = {a, b} and Y = {x, y}, then

X Y = {(a, x), (a, y), (b, x), (b, y)} and Y  X = {(x, a) (x, b), (y, a), (y, b)}.
Note that X  Y  Y  X.

Definition: Let S and T be sets. A function f from S to T is a subset f of

S  T such that
 (i) for s  S, there exists t  T with (s, t)  f;

(ii) (s, u)  f and (s, t)  f  t = u.

If (s, t)  f, then we write (s, f(s)) or f(s) = t.

Here t is called the image of s; and s is called the preimage of t.

The set S is called the domain of f and T is called the codomain.

The set {f(s) / s  S} is a subset of T and it is called the image of S under f (or image
of f). We denote the fact: ‘f is a function from S to T’ by “ f : S  T”.

Example: Let R be the set of real numbers. Define f(x) = x2 for every x  R. This
represents a function f = {(x, x2)  x  R}.

Example: Let f: N  N be a function such that f(x) = x (mod 3). That is f(x) is the
remainder obtained when x is divided by 3. Then the domain of f is N and the range of f
is {0, 1, 2}.

Definition: f: S  T is said to be

(i) one-one function (or injective function) if it satisfies the following condition: f(s1)
= f(s2)  s1 = s2.

(ii) onto function (or surjective function) if it satisfies the following condition: t  T
 there corresponds an element s in S such that f(s) = t.

(iii) a bijection if it is both one-one and onto.

Definition: Let g: S  T and f : T  U. The composition of f and g is a function

fog : S  U defined by (fog)(s) = f(g(s)) for all s in S.

That is, fog = {(s, u)  s  S, u  U and  t  T and t = g(s) and u = f(t)}.

Example: Let f: R  R and g: R  R where R is the set of real numbers. If f(x) = x2-2
and g(x) = x + 4. Find gof and fog

Solution: (gof) (x) = g(f(x)) = g(x2-2) = (x2-2) + 4 = x2 + 2; and

(fog)(x) = f(g(x)) = f(x + 4) = (x + 4)2 – 2 = x2 + 8x +14.

Introduction to generalization of vector concept:

Vectors are generally used in many areas of physical and engineering sciences. The need for
a vector concept arose very naturally in machines. The force on a body cannot in general be
completely described by a single number. Force has two properties, magnitude and
direction, and so requires more than a single number of its description. We learn a concept
of vector and generalization of vector in higher dimensions. Vector is a physical quantity
that has both direction and magnitude (For example: Force). Mathematically vector is
referred as directed line segment.
The following diagram shows the vector in three
dimensions.
Consider OA as in figure. It has magnitude

Scalar multiplication is one of the basic operations defining a

vector space in linear algebra (or more generally, a module in
abstract algebra). Note that scalar multiplication is different
from scalar product which is an inner product between two
vectors. The scalar multiplication is defined as a = (a1, a2) be
any vector and  be any scalar, then a = (a1, a2).

Example: If a = (2, 3), 6a = (12, 18). If a = (1, -1), then -4a = (-4, 4).

Graphical Illustration:
Consider the mechanics for our intuitive foundations. It is well known that if two forces
act on a particle (a proton, for example) to produce some resultant motion, the same
motion can be produced by applying a single force. This single force can, in a real sense,
be considered to be the stun of the original two forces. The rule which we use in
obtaining magnitude and direction of a single force which replaces the original two forces
is rather interesting:

If a, b are the original forces, then the single force

c, which we shall call the sum of a, b, is the
diagonal of the parallelogram with sides a, b. This
is illustrated in the following diagram.

a = (a1, a2), b = (b1, b2),

c = a + b = (a1 + b1, a2 + b2) = (c1, c2).

To add three vectors, the first two are added to obtain the resultant, and the third is then
added to the resultant of the first two.