Let denote a
field,
and
.
Suppose that in , there are vectors
(or -tuples)
-
given. Let
-
be another vector. We want to know whether can be written as a
linear combination
of the . Thus, we are dealing with the question whether there are elements
such that
-
holds. This equality of vectors means identity in every component, so that this condition yields a
system of linear equations
-