Consider the reduced row echelon matrix
and its corresponding linear system as
Let’s rewrite the equations as
From this description, it is clear that we obtain a solution for any value of the variable For instance, if then and so that is a solution. Similarly, if we see that is also a solution.
Because there is no restriction on the value of
we call it a
free variable, and note that the linear system has infinitely many solutions. The variables
and
are called
basic variables as they are determined once we make a choice of the free variable.
We will call this description of the solution space, in which the basic variables are written in terms of the free variables, a
parametric description of the solution space.