Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2013 / ia / Paper 1 / 5C / Solution

Two nonzero vectors are linearly independent when $s\mathbf{x}+t\mathbf{y}=0$ forces $s=t=0$. Their linear span then has dimension two. If they are linearly dependent, one is a nonzero scalar multiple of the other, and their span has dimension one. Thus the two requested dimensions are $\boxed{2\text{ and }1}$.

The Euclidean scalar product and its norm are $\mathbf{x}\cdot \mathbf{y}={\sum }_{j=1}^n{x}_j{y}_j$ and $\Vert \mathbf{x}\Vert =\sqrt{\mathbf{x}\cdot \mathbf{x}}$. To prove the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, first handle $\mathbf{y}=0$ trivially. Otherwise the squared normgivesEquality holds exactly when the residual vector is zero, meaning the vectors are linearly dependent; this includes the zero-vector cases. Expanding $\Vert \mathbf{x}+\mathbf{y}{\Vert }^2$ and applying Cauchy-Schwarz then givesTaking nonnegative square roots proves the triangle inequality.

For the unit-vector optimization, let $\mathbf{w}=\mathbf{x}+\mathbf{y}$. Independence ensures $\mathbf{w}\ne 0$. The variable part of $S$ is $\mathbf{z}\cdot \mathbf{w}$, which Cauchy-Schwarz bounds below by $-\Vert \mathbf{w}\Vert$. Equality occurs only for the antiparallel unit vector. ThusThis is minimizing a linear functional on a sphere. The two consequences follow below.