Question

Determine whether the given functions are linearly dependent or linearly independent on the specified interval. Justify your decisions.

$\left\{{\sin }^{2}x, {\cos }^{2}x, 1\right\}$on$\left(-\infty , \infty \right)$

Short answer

Thus, the function is$\left\{{\mathbf{sin}}^{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{,} {\mathbf{cos}}^{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{,} \mathbf{1}\right\}$ linearly dependent on $\left(\mathbf{-}\infty \mathbf{,} \infty \right)$.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1:Using the concept of Wronskian

The given function is$\left\{{\mathbf{sin}}^{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{,} {\mathbf{cos}}^{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{,} \mathbf{1}\right\}.$

Apply the concept of Wronskian,

$W\left[f_1,f_2,\dots ,f_n\right]=\left|\begin{array}{cccc}{f}_1\left(x\right)& f_2\left(x\right)& \dots & f_n\left(x\right)\\ f_1\text{'}\left(x\right)& f_2\text{'}\left(x\right)& \dots & f_n\text{'}\left(x\right)\\ ⋮& ⋮& & ⋮\\ {f_1}^{n-1}\left(x\right)& {f_2}^{n-1}\left(x\right)& \cdots & {f_n}^{n-1}\left(x\right)\end{array}\right|$

Therefore,

$$\begin{gathered} W\left[{\sin }^{2}x,{\cos }^{2}x,1\right]=W\left[\frac{1-\cos 2x}{2},\frac{1+\cos 2x}{2},1\right] \\ =\left|\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{1-\cos 2x}{2}& \frac{1+\cos 2x}{2}& 1\\ \sin 2x& -\sin 2x& 0\\ 2\cos 2x& -2\cos 2x& 0\end{array}\right| \end{gathered}$$

Solve the above equation,

$$\begin{gathered} \mathbf{W}\left[{\mathbf{sin}}^{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{,} {\mathbf{cos}}^{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{,} \mathbf{1}\right]\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{1}\mathbf{-}\mathbf{cos}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{x}}{\mathbf{2}}\left(\mathbf{0}\right)\mathbf{-}\frac{\mathbf{1}\mathbf{+}\mathbf{cos}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{x}}{\mathbf{2}}\left(\mathbf{0}\right)\mathbf{+}\mathbf{1}\left(\mathbf{-}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{sin}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{xcos}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{+}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{sin}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{xcos}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{x}\right) \\ \mathbf{=}\mathbf{0} \end{gathered}$$

Step 2:Check the linearly independent or dependent

The above function is equal to zero$\left(\forall \mathbf{x}\right).$

Therefore,$\left\{{\mathbf{sin}}^{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{,} {\mathbf{cos}}^{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{x}\mathbf{,} \mathbf{1}\right\}$ are linearly dependent on $\left(\mathbf{-}\infty \mathbf{,} \infty \right)$.