Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford / 2014 / Digital systems, linear algebra, introduction to formal proof / 5 / d

The pivot columns of the reduced row echelon form are columns 1 and 3. Take those columns of the original matrix, since elementary row operations need not preserve the original column space:For an explicit spanning check, column 2 is $-2a_1$, column 4 is $-a_1+2a_3$, and column 5 is $3a_1-2a_3$. The first two coordinates of the displayed columns form a $2\times 2$ matrix of determinant $-5\ne 0$, proving their linear independence. They are therefore a basis of the column space.