UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

MATH1048W1

SEMESTER 1 EXAMINATION 2013/14

MATH1048 Linear Algebra I
Duration: 2 hrs

This paper has two parts, part A and part B: you should answer all
questions from part A and part B .
Part A consists of 15 multiple-choice questions each worth 2 marks.
Exactly one of the 5 options (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) is correct. Sometimes
that is (e) none of the above! Correct answers will attract 2 marks, no
answer 0 marks and wrong answers 0.5 marks. Enter your answers
into the designated answer sheet (AS/MATH1048/Part A/2014).
Part B consists of 3 questions worth 25, 25 and 20 marks, respectively.
Write your answers into the standard University answer booklet.
Using the provided tag, attach the completed answer sheet for part A
to the answer booklet(s) for Part B.
Only University approved calculators may be used.
A foreign language dictionary (paper version) is permitted provided it contains no notes,
additions or annotations.

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MATH1048W1

PART A

Questions A1 - A4 refer to the points U (2, 5, 4) , V (1, 2, 3) and W (1, 4, 1)

in R3 , with respective position vectors u, v and w .

A1. ||2u + 3v w|| =

(a)

23,

(b) (6, 7, 21)T ,

(c)

12,

(d)

42,

(e) none of the above.

A2. The equation of the plane orthogonal to V U , and through W is

(b) r = (1, 4, 1)T + (3, 7, 7)T ,

(a) x + 4y + z = 24,
(c)

x1 y4 z1
=
=
,
3
7
7

(d) 3x + 7y 7z = 24,

(e) none of the above.

A3. The equation of the line parallel to V W , and through U is

(a) r = (2, 6, 2)T + (2, 5, 4)T ,
(c)

x2 y5 z+4
=
=
,
2
6
2

(b) 2x + 6y 2z = 4,

(d) r = (2, 5, 4)T + (1, 3, 1)T ,

(e) none of the above.

A4. The projection of u along w is equal to

(a) (2, 5, 4)T ,

(b) 1,

(c) 18,

(d) (1, 4, 1)T ,

(e) none of the above.

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MATH1048W1

A5. Which of statements (a)-(d) is a meaningful statement about vectors u, v, w Rn ?

(a) (w v) u = w u + v u,
(c) u v = w (u + v),

(b) ||1 w|| = 2,

(d) u v = w,

(e) none of the above.

A6. For two vectors u, v Rn , with u 6= 0 , the projection of v along u is defined as


(a)


vu
v,
uu


(b)


vv
u,
vu


(c)


uv
u,
uu


(d)


uu
v,
vu

(e) none of the above.

1
3

A7. In R2 , the matrix corresponding to a reflection in the line y = x is

(a)

1
2
3
2

3
2
12

!
, (b)

1
2

3
2

1
2
3
2

!
, (c)

1
2

3
2

23
21

!
, (d)

3
2
12

1
2
3
2

!
,

(e) none of the above.

A8. In R2 , a reflection in the line x = 0, followed by a rotation by /3, corresponds to

which of the following transformations?

(a) A reflection in the line y = 3x,

(b) A rotation about the origin by /6,
(c) A reflection in the line through the origin, making an angle of /3 with the positive
x-axis,
(d) A rotation about the origin by 4/3,
(e) none of the above.

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MATH1048W1

Questions A9 and A10 refer to the matrices

2 3 1 1
2 0 4 1

A=
0 1 0 0
1 3 0 2

2 0 3 5
0 1 4 2

and B =
0 0 4 1 .
0 0 0 3

A9. The determinant of A is

(a) 23,

(b) 17,

(c) 17,

(d) 42,

(e) none of the above.

A10. The determinant of AB is

(a) 552,

(b) 408,

(c) 552,

(d) 408,

(e) none of the above.

A11. Given an n n matrix A, where n > 1, which of the statements (a)-(d) cannot be
true in general?
(a) If A has a row of zeroes, then it is singular,
(b) If A is invertible, then det AT

= det(A),

(c) r R , det(rA) = |r n |det(A),

(d) If A is invertible and B is obtained from A by exchanging two rows of A , then
det(A) = det(B),
(e) none of the above.

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MATH1048W1

2
1
1
A12. Given the vectors v1 = 3 , v2 = 2 , and v3 = 1 in R3 , which
4
3
1
of the statements (a)-(d) is true?
(a) v1 , v2 , v3 span a plane in R3 ,
(b) {v1 , v2 , v3 } is a spanning set for R3 ,
(c) v1 , v2 , v3 are linearly independent,
(d) the matrix with columns v1 , v2 , v3 is invertible
(e) none of the above.

A13. If v1 , v2 , . . . , vk Rn , and V is a subspace of Rn such that all vectors in

span{v1 , v2 , . . . , vk } are also in V , which of the following statements must be
true?
(a) v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are a spanning set for Rn ,
(b) v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are a spanning set for V ,
(c) v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are linearly dependent,
(d) all linear combinations of v1 , . . . , vk are in V ,
(e) none of the above.

2 3
3 1

A14. Given the matrix A =

, and the quadratic form qA (x) = xT Ax, which of

the following is true?

(a) qA is positive semi-definite,
(c) qA is positive definite,

(b) qA is indefinite,

(d) qA is negative definite

(e) none of the above.

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MATH1048W1

A15. Which of the following statements about sets of vectors is true?

(a) A linearly independent set in Rn contains at least n vectors,
(b) A spanning set for Rn contains at most n vectors,
(c) A linearly independent set in Rn contains at most n vectors,
(d) A spanning set for Rn contains at least n linearly independent vectors,
(e) none of the above.

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MATH1048W1

PART B

B1. (a) Four points in R3 are given: A(1, 1, 1) , B(2, 5, 4) , C(2, 3, 0) , and
D(7, 3, 3) .

(i) (5 marks) Let L1 be the line through point B and parallel to the vector AC ,
and let L2 be the line through points A and D . Find the vector equations of
the two lines and their point of intersection, if it exists.
(ii) (5 marks) Find the cartesian equation of the plane through A , B and C .
(iii) (3 marks) Find the intersection of line L1 found in (i) and the plane found in
(ii), if it exists.
(b) (4 marks) Given two non-zero vectors a , b Rn , prove that

||a + b|| = ||a b|| if and only if a and b are orthogonal.

(c) (8 marks) Sketch the effect on the unit square of the transformation
corresponding to the matrix


A=

1 2
3 2


.

Observe that this can be expressed as a stretch, followed by a shear along the
y -axis, followed by a clockwise rotation. Sketch the successive effect of each
transformation on the unit square, and obtain the matrix corresponding to each
transformation, giving all details!

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MATH1048W1

B2. (a) (5 marks) State the Theorem on Existence and Uniqueness of Solutions for linear
systems of equations.
(b) (5 marks) Use Gaussian elimination to find the inverse of the matrix

1 1 5
A = 1 1 2 .
2 1 1
(c) (4 marks) Let A be a 2 2 matrix, and t the transformation of the plane R2 ,
such that

t(x) = Ax ,

x R2 .

Prove that t is linear.

(d) (5 marks) Let be a plane in Rn . Prove that is a subspace of Rn if and only if
contains the origin.
(e) (6 marks) Let U and V be subspaces of Rn . Prove that U V is a subspace of
Rn .

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MATH1048W1

B3. (a) (4 marks) Given an m n matrix A, define nul(A) and col(A), the nullspace
and column space of A.
(b) (5 marks) Apply the Gram-Schmidt process to the vectors

1
v1 = 0 ,
1

2
v2 = 1 ,
0

4
v3 = 5
3

to find an orthonormal set in R3 .

(c) (6 marks) Show that = 1 is one of the eigenvalues of the matrix

1 2 1
A=2 1 1.
1 1 2
Find the other eigenvalues, and an eigenvector corresponding to = 1.
(d) (5 marks) For each set of vectors below, state whether they are linearly
independent or dependent. In each case give your reasoning.

1
3
2
(i) 1 , 2 , 1
1
4
2

1
2
3
(ii) 2 , 3 , 4 ,
3
4
5

1
1
1

END OF PAPER

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