APL 703 Engineering Mathematics and Computation, Semester 1, 2016-17

Department of Applied Mechanics

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Arjun Sharma
Quiz 2

(1) If the matrix U = 12 21 , what conic section does Qf = xT U x = 1 represent? (x 6= 0 is a general vector)
The eigen values of the matrix U are = 1, 3. If xT = (x1 , x2 ), then Qf = x21 + x22 + 4x1 x2 = 1, represents
a hyperbola y12 + 3y22 = 1 in the principal-axes coordinates.
(2) (True of False) Suppose U is a n n singular matrix. Then, the dimension of the null space of U is always
1. Explain.
False. If a n n matrix U is singular, then rank(U ) n 1. The dimension of the null space of U (denoted
by N (U )) is then dim(N (U )) = n rank(U ) 1.