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Consider the following problem:

Let $v_1,v_2,v_3,v_4,v_5\in V$, where $V$ is a vector space over ${\mathbb R}$ and $v_i\neq 0$ for $i = 1,2,3,4,5$. If the following statement is true:

$\sum_{i=1}^{5}a_iv_i\neq0$ whenever $a_i\neq 0 $ for all $i$.

What is the possible least dimension of $V$?

All I have tried so far is considering the contrapositive of the statement. But I have no idea how to go on. Furthermore, can this problem be generalized to the $v_i(i=1,2,\cdots,n)$ case?

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    @A$n$dréNicolas: I didn't want to take away the chance of discovering an example with minimal dimension on his own. I'm sure Jack could have figured it out, if he only started to think about such examples...2011-10-18

2 Answers 2

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1 dimensional is out: If $v_1=c_2v_2=c_3v_3=c_4v_4=c_5v_5$ then $5v_1-c_2v_2-\cdots-c_5v_5=0$ (all coefficients non-zero).

On the other hand, $v_1=(1,0)$ and $v_2=\cdots=v_5=(0,1)$ then $a_1v_1+\dots+a_5v_5 \not=0$ if just $a_1 \not=0$. This gives a 2 dimensional example.

So the minimum is 2.

I must say, what an odd question.

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    It took me a few minutes to see what was going on. My first thought was to try from the top down (why not dim 5,4,etc.)...FAIL. Misreading the question actually helped solve it more quickly. I hadn't noticed the $v_i \not=0$ hypothesis. Without that the dimension is 1: $v_1=1$, all else zero. With the nonzero hypothesis, you just need a slight adjustment.2011-10-18
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The answer should be $5$. Let $A$ be the matrix with column vectors $v_1,v_2,v_3,v_4,v_5$ and assume that $\dim(V)=5$. Up to isomorphism, we can let $V=R^m$. Then $A$ is a linear transform $A:{\mathbb R}^5\to{\mathbb R}^m$. We have $ \dim(\ker(A))=0 $ since $Aa=0$ where $a\in{\mathbb R}^5$ has unique solution $a=0$, which is an equivalent condition to that in OP. By the rank-nullity theorem, $ \dim(range(A))=5-0=5. $ It follows that $m\geq 5$.