Explain why there does not exist a list of six polynomials that are linearly independent in P4(F)\mathcal P_4(\mathbf F).


The list (1,x,,x4)(1,x,\dots,x^4) in P4(F)\mathcal P_4(\mathbf F) is spanning, by 2.23 the length of any linearly independent list \le length of any spanning list. Meaning we can have at most five linearly independent vectors in P4(F)\mathcal P_4(\mathbf F), and so a list of six cannot exist.