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Main result
We now prove that a left inverse of a square matrix is also a right inverse.
In other words, we show the following:
Let where denotes a field.
If , then .
Before we look at the proof, note that the above statement also establishes
that a right inverse is also a left inverse because we can view as
the right inverse of (as ) and the conclusion asserts
that is a left inverse of (as ).
To prove the above statement, we first establish
the claim that has a solution for all .
The claim is not true if does not have a left inverse.
We postpone the proof of this claim to the end. Let's see how we can use
this claim to prove the main result.
Take an arbitrary element in and call it .
Then the above result tells us that there is such
that . Multiplying both sides on the left by , we
get that , giving by associativity of
matrix multiplication. As , we have .
Hence, . Let denote the product .
So . But is arbitrary. We must have .
Proof of claim
Suppose that there exists such that
has no solution. Now, row reduce
to where is in reduced row-echelon form.
As has no solution, there must be an such
that row of has all 0's and .
Hence, because is a square matrix, not every column of can be a pivot column.
So there is at least one free variable, implying that
there is a nonzero (i.e., ).
But ,
contradicting that is nonzero!
So the assumption that there exists such that
has no solution cannot be true.
Quick Quiz
Exercise
Let and
let .
Compute the products and .
Do the answers contradict our main result? If not, why not?