【归档】证明V的两个子空间的并是V的子空间当且仅当其中一个子空间包含另一个子空间

Note: 旧的wordpress博客弃用，于是将以前的笔记搬运回来。

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Question:
Prove that the union of two subspaces of $V$ is a subspace of $V$ if and only if one of the subspaces of $V$ is contained in the other.
证明V的两个子空间的并是B的子空间当且仅当其中一个子空间包含领一个子空间。
Solution:
Assume two set A, B are subspaces of $V$.
Part 1:
Assume $A\cup B=A$ or $B$.
Clearly $A\cup B=A$ or $B\in V$.
Therefor if one subspace of $V$ is contained in the other, the union of two subspaces is a subspace of $V$.
Part 2:
Assume $A\cup B\ne A$ or $B$.
Now we take $a\in A$ but not in $B$, and $b\in B$ but not in $A$.
Since $a\in A$, we know $-a\in A$.
Assume $a+b\in A$.
As we know, $A$ is a subspace of $V$. So $A$ is closed under addition.
Therefor, $(a+b)+(-a)$ should be in A.
But in fact, $(a+b)+(-a)=b$. We have assumed that $b\notin A$. We have reached a contradiction on the assumption that $a+b\in A$. Thus $a+b\notin A$.
If we assume $a+b\in B$, we will also reach a contradiction like this.
Therefor, $a+b$ is not in A and B.
i.e. $a+b\notin A\cup B$.
Then the set $A\cup B$ isn’t closed under addition.
Therefor if $A\cup B\ne A$ or $B$, $A\cup B$ is not a subspace of V.
Now we have proved that the union of two subspaces of $V$ is a subspace of $V$ if and only if one of the subspaces of $V$ is contained in the other.