Hello Can someone explain this statement please? \"A square matrix A is row equivalent to the identity matrix if and only if the columns of A^T (transpose of A) are linearly independent\" I know the answer is true but I need some explanation.. Thank you :) Solution Columns of A^T are same as the rows of A.;;;;;;;; So, the statement reduces to \"A square matrix A is row equivalent to the identity matrix if and only if the rows of A are linearly independent\" .Let us prove this;;;;;;;;;;; Consider A to be a set of 3 linear equations, with variables x,y,z. If it has a unique solution, then the set of 3 linear equations obtained from identity matrix also have a unique solution. [By linear row transformations.] So,A is row equivalent to the identity matrix.But if they are not linearly independant, they cant have a unique solution but the identity matrix has a unique solution.So, they cant be row equivalent in this case. So, the \'if and only if\" statement is justified .