Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-2/2/solution

No. Every one of the three vectors has equal first and second Cartesian coordinates, so their linear span is contained in the plane . That linear subspace has dimension two and cannot equal .
More explicitly, call the three given vectors in their listed order. Then
This nontrivial linear relation proves linear dependence, whereas a basis must be linearly independent. Being unit vectors alone does not ensure that they form a basis.

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