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
-