[latex for the question]
First, I will define my vectors:
b <- c(2,1,2,1)
w1 <- c(1,2,0,2)
w2 <- c(1,0,3,1)
w3 <- c(0,1,0,2)
w4 <- c(1,1,2,0)
For my operations, it makes sense to consider my subspace W as a single matrix.
W = matrix(c(w1,w2,w3,w4), ncol=4)
W
## [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
## [1,] 1 1 0 1
## [2,] 2 0 1 1
## [3,] 0 3 0 2
## [4,] 2 1 2 0
Next, I will check for linear independence by confirming the determinant of matrix W is not 0.
det(W) != 0
## [1] TRUE
Now, I can determine if b is in the subspace W by solving the equation Wx = b. If this equation returns a solution for x, b is indeed in the subspace W.
solve(W,b)
## [1] 1.5 1.0 -1.5 -0.5
Since the solve function returned a vector x, b is in the subspace W.