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When seeking a solution, one or more variables are designated as unknowns. A solution is an assignment of values to the unknown variables that makes the equality in the equation true. In other words, a solution is a value or a collection of values (one for each unknown) such that, when substituted for the unknowns, the equation becomes an equality.
where the n × n matrix A has a nonzero determinant, and the vector = (, …,) is the column vector of the variables. Then the theorem states that in this case the system has a unique solution, whose individual values for the unknowns are given by:
Each unknown can be seen as an available degree of freedom. Each equation introduced into the system can be viewed as a constraint that restricts one degree of freedom. Therefore, the critical case (between overdetermined and underdetermined) occurs when the number of equations and the number of free variables are equal.
The system + =, + = has exactly one solution: x = 1, y = 2 The nonlinear system + =, + = has the two solutions (x, y) = (1, 0) and (x, y) = (0, 1), while + + =, + + =, + + = has an infinite number of solutions because the third equation is the first equation plus twice the second one and hence contains no independent information; thus any value of z can be chosen and values of x and y can be ...
The n-tuples that are solutions of a linear equation in n variables are the Cartesian coordinates of the points of an (n − 1)-dimensional hyperplane in an n-dimensional Euclidean space (or affine space if the coefficients are complex numbers or belong to any field). In the case of three variables, this hyperplane is a plane.
Sometimes boxes or shapes are used to indicate unknown values. As such, number sentences are used to introduce students to notions of structure and elementary algebra prior to a more formal treatment of these concepts. A number sentence without unknowns is equivalent to a logical proposition expressed using the notation of arithmetic.