Introduction

Though a bit of an exaggeration, it can be said that a mathematical problem can be solved only if it can be reduced to a calculation in linear algebra. And a calculation in linear algebra will reduce ultimately to the solving of a system of linear equations, which in turn comes down to the manipulation of matrices. Throughout this text and, more importantly, throughout mathematics, linear algebra is a key tool (or more accurately, a collection of intertwining tools) that is critical for doing calculations.

The power of linear algebra lies not only in our ability to manipulate matrices in order to solve systems of linear equations. The abstraction of these concrete objects to the ideas of vector spaces and linear transformations allows us to see the common conceptual links between many seemingly disparate subjects. (Of course, this is the advantage of any good abstraction.) For example, the study of solutions to linear differential equations has, in part, the same feel as trying to model the hood of a car with cubic polynomials, since both the space of solutions to a linear differential equation and the space of cubic polynomials that model a car hood form vector spaces.

The key theorem of linear algebra, discussed in section six, gives many equivalent ways of telling when a system of n linear equations in n unknowns has a solution.