Two or more functions, equations, or vectors 
, 
, ..., which are not linearly dependent, i.e., cannot be expressed in the form
 |
with 
, 
, ... constants which are not all zero are said to be linearly independent.
A set of 
vectors 
, 
, ..., 
is linearly independent iff the matrix rank of the matrix 
is 
, in which case 
is diagonalizable.
