Row Space and Null Space

Learn two complementary subspaces of a matrix, row space and null space.

Definition of row space

The row space of a matrix, AA, denoted by R(A)R(A), is the span of its row vectors. Mathematically,

R(A)=C(AT)R(A)=C(A^T)

Example

The row space of A=[100001]A=\begin{bmatrix}1 &0&0\\0&0&1\end{bmatrix} is the xzxz plane in R3\R^3, which can also be seen as a column space of ATA^T. The column space of AA is R2\R^2, with a basis as the first and third columns of AA. Both the row space and column space of AA are two dimensional, but they’e fundamentally different.

rank(A)=rank(AT)    dim(R(A))=dim(C(A))rank(A)=rank(A^T)\implies dim(R(A))=dim(C(A))

Note: Even though R(A)R(A) and C(A)C(A) have the same dimensions, R(A)R(A) and C ...