Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 ia Paper 1 8C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The line through the origin is , containing zero and closed under addition and scalar multiplication, so it is a vector subspace. If , then and for some real . Conversely that equality gives the same set after shifting the line parameter. ThusChanging representatives to , changes their sum by and a scalar multiple by . The line classes therefore do not change, proving both operations well-defined. Associativity follows from . The zero vector of this quotient vector space is the entire line , because .
For a basis of , every vector is , so . If this combination equals , then ; independence of the three original basis vectors forces . Hence is a basis of the space of parallel lines as a quotient vector space.