Linear independence

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In the theory of vector spaces, a set of vectors is said to be linearly independent if there exists no nontrivial linear combination of the vectors that equals the zero vector. If such a linear combination exists, then the vectors are said to be linearly dependent. These concepts are central to the definition of dimension.^[1]

A vector space can be of finite dimension or infinite dimension depending on the maximum number of linearly independent vectors. The definition of linear dependence and the ability to determine whether a subset of vectors in a vector space is linearly dependent are central to determining the dimension of a vector space.