Fall 2013

MATH1853 (Linear Algebra)

Dr. N. Wong

Problem Set #1
1. Solve the following equations by Gaussian elimination.

2x1 + 3x2 + 11x3 + 5x4 = 2

x1 + x2 + 5x3 + 2x4 = 1
.
2x

1 + x2 + 3x3 + 2x4 = 3

x1 + x2 + 3x3 + 4x4 = 3
2. When a and b are real numbers, solve the solution(s) to the equations

2x + y = 3
.
x + ay = b
3. Find the solution(s) [x1 x2 x3 ]T to the following system, where a and b are real numbers.

ax1 + bx2 + bx3 = 0

bx1 + ax2 + bx3 = 0 .

bx1 + bx2 + ax3 = 0

4. Prove that the vectors u1 = [1 3 5]T , u2 = [1 2 7]T and u3 = [0 1 2]T span R3 .
5. Suppose vectors {a1 , . . . , an } are linearly independent, while vectors {a1 , . . . , an , b} are linearly dependent.
Show that b is a linear combination of {a1 , . . . , an }.

Fall 2013

MATH1853 (Linear Algebra)

Dr. N. Wong

Problem Set #2

3 1 1
1. For A = 2 2 1 and b = [1, 2, 3]T ,
1 1 1
Find A1 and verify that x = A1 b satisfies Ax = b.
2. Solve the equation Ax = b in Problem 1 by Cramers rule.


 4 1 1 


3. Find the cofactors of the determinant  1 1 1 . Hence evaluate the determinant.
0 1 2


1 0 1 2


2 1 1 1
 = 0.
4. Find a when det 

3 2 1 1
0 0 a 1
5. Solve the equation for x.


 1

 1

det  1


 1

6. Find the determination of the matrix An .

1
1
1x
1
1
2x

1
1


1 
1 
1  = 0.

n x

1
x

0
0

0
0

x
0

a0
a1

An =

an1
an

0
1

0
0

0
0

.
1
x

Fall 2013

MATH1853 (Linear Algebra)

Dr. N. Wong

Problem Set #3
1. It is known that the matrix

7
4 1
7 1
A= 4
4 4

has eigenvalues 1 =2 = 3, 3 = 12. Find the value of and the eigenvectors of A.

2. Suppose A is a 2-by-2 matrix with distinct eigenvalues and . Show that tr (A) = + and det (A) =.
3. It is known that matrix A has eigenvalues 1 =2 =3 = 1, 4 = 3. Their corresponding eigenvectors are

T

T

T

T
v1 = 1 1 0 0
, v2 = 1 1 1 0
, v3 = 0 1 1 1
and v4 = 0 0 1 1
.
Is A diagonalizable? If yes, find A and An .

 



4. Find unit vector that is perpendicular to 1 1 1 1 , 1 1 1 1 and 2 1 1 3 simultaneously.


5. = 1 2 n Rn , and i 6= 0 (i = 1, 2, , n).
(a) Find all eigenvalues of matrix A = T ;


(b) = 1 2 n Rn , and i 6= 0 (i = 1, 2, , n). If and are orthogonal vectors.
Prove that all the eigenvalues of matrix B =T are zero.

6.

(a) Find all solutions to the following system of differential equations:


y1 = 5y1 +3y2
.

y2 = 4y1 +2y2
(b) Use your computations from part (a) to find all solutions to the following system of differential equations:

z1 = 5z1 +3z2
.

z2 = 4z1 +2z2

Fall 2013

MATH1853 (Linear Algebra)

Dr. N. Wong

Problem Set #4

1 3
. When A has eigenvalues 1 and 2 ,
1. Compute the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A and A : A =
2 0
2
what are the eigenvalues of A ? And what is the relationship between the eigenvectors of A and A2 ?




1
1
2. If A has 1 = 2 with eigenvector x1 =
and 2 = 5 with x2 =
, use SS 1 to find A.
0
1


3. Diagonalize A and compute Sk S 1 to prove this formula for Ak :





2 1
1 + 3k 1 3k
has Ak = 21
A=
.
1 2
1 3k 1 + 3k
4. Suppose the same S diagonalizes both A and B. They have the same eigenvectors in A = S1 S 1 and
B = S2 S 1 . Prove that AB = BA.




cos
sin
2 0
cos sin
, find (a) the determinant of A, (b)
5. Without multiplying A =
sin cos
0 5
sin
cos
the eigenvalues of A, (c) the eigenvectors of A and (d) the reason why A is symmetric positive definite.
6. Give a quick reason why each of these statements is true:
(a) Every positive definite matrix is invertible.
(b) The only positive definite projection matrix is P = I.
(c) A diagonal matrix with positive diagonal entries is positive definite.
(d) A symmetric matrix with a positive determinant might not be positive definite.
7. (a) Find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A. They depend on c:
A=

0.4
0.6

1c
c

(b) Show that A has just one eigenvector when c = 1.6.

(c) This is a Markov matrix when c = 0.8. Then An will approach what matrix A ?
8. The nth power of rotation through is rotation through n:
An =

cos
sin

n

sin
cos

cos n
sin n

sin n
cos n

Prove that this neat formula by diagonalizing A = SS 1 . The eigenvectors (columns of S) are (1, i) and
(i, 1). You need to know Eulers formula ei = cos + i sin .