How does elimination on rectangular matrices reveal the rank, pivot columns, and free columns?
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Elimination past a zero pivot position
Carry the matrix with rows , , through elimination, skip column two on to the next pivot, and record the echelon form .
Rank as the number of pivots
State for that example, count the pivot variables and the free variables , and note that elimination preserves the null space and changes the column space.
Pivot columns against free columns
Record that pivot columns are the independent ones and free columns depend on earlier columns, citing column two of the example as twice column one and row three as rows one plus two.