# Is the space spanned by a set of orthogonal vectors greater than the space spanned by the same amount of linearly independent vectors?

Let's say that we have a set of $n$ vectors, each belonging to $R^m$ that do not form a basis for $R^m$.

Intuitively, I feel like the space spanned by a set of orthogonal vectors will be greater than the space spanned by the same amount of linearly independent vectors. Now although this might now always be true, it intuitively feels like for the majority of cases this is true, as the volume of orthogonal vectors will be larger than the volume of linearly independent vectors (assuming magnitude if vectors are the same).

Can anyone shine some light on this intuition?

• What does "greater" mean? – vadim123 Nov 29 '16 at 4:46
• @vadim123 The cardinality of the set of vectors that can be made via a linear combination of the respective set. – Armen Aghajanyan Nov 29 '16 at 4:47
• @ArmenAghajanyan $|\mathbb R^n|=|\mathbb R^m|$, so cardinality isn’t a good choice for defining “greater.” The dimension of the spanned space might be a better choice. – amd Nov 29 '16 at 8:44

Not true. Suppose you are in the regular 3D space $(\Bbb R^3)$. Two linearly independent vectors will span a plane, independent if those two vectors are orthogonal. In fact, if you have a set of linearly independent vectors, you can use them to construct the same number of orthogonal vectors
• This is a good example, but the point is general. $n$ linearly independent vectors will span an $n$ dimensional subspace. You can find a set of $n$ orthogonal vectors that span the same subspace, and in any case $n$ orthogonal vectors will span an $n$ dimensional subspace (unless one is zero-some definitions of orthogonal permit that). It seems reasonable to accept that all $n$ dimensional subspaces are the same size in the sense we are talking. – Ross Millikan Nov 29 '16 at 5:10
• @ArmenAghajanyan The cardinality of all non-trivial subspaces of $\mathbb R^3$ is the same. Perhaps you should compare dimensions instead. – amd Nov 29 '16 at 8:45
In $\mathbb{R}^m$, no, the orthogonality doesn't matter.