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http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/86762/finding-a-basis-of-an-infinite-dimensional-vector-space
Finding a basis of an infinite-dimensional vector space? asked Nov 29 '11 at 16:30 InterestedGuest

2 Answers answered Jan 20 '12 at 19:25 Qiaochu Yuan

For many infinite-dimensional vector spaces of interest we don't care about describing a basis anyway; they often come with a topology and we can therefore get a lot out of studying dense subspaces, some of which, again, have easily describable bases.
In Hilbert spaces, for example, we care more about orthonormal bases (which are not Hamel bases in the infinite-dimensional case); these span dense subspaces in a particularly nice way.

4. answered Jan 20 '12 at 19:09 David Wheeler
The "hard case" is essentially equivalent to this one:

Find a basis for the real numbers R over the field of the rational numbers Q.

The reals are obviously an extension field of the rationals, so they form a vector space over Q. It should be clear that such a basis has to be uncountable (for if it were countable, the reals would likewise also be countable).

It should also be clear that such a basis is a subset of {1}∪R?Q. The trouble is, that the power set of the reals is "so big" that it's not even clear how to name the sets we need to apply the axiom of choice TO. Linearly independent subsets however, DO satisfy the requirements for Zorn's Lemma, a form of the Axiom of Choice.

A relatively easy-to-follow proof of the existence of a basis for any vector space using Zorn's Lemma can be found here: http://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/EveryVectorSpaceHasABasis.html