PROJECT FILE

OF
MATHEMATICS
TOPIC: - VARIOUS METHOD TO FIND
RANK

SUBMITTED BY: - SUBMITTED TO:-

MANMEET SINGH LECT. SONAM DEVGUN
ROLL NO. - R249A26
SECTION- R249
REGT. NO. - 10801620
 Various Method of Finding
Rank

INTRODUCTION

Rank (linear algebra)

The column rank of a matrix A is the maximal number of linearly
independent columns of A. Likewise, the row rank is the maximal
number of linearly independent rows of A.
Since the column rank and the row rank are always equal, they are
simply called the rank of A. It is commonly denoted by either
rk(A) or rank A.
The rank of an matrix is at most min(m,n). A matrix that has
a rank as large as possible is said to have full rank; otherwise, the
matrix is rank deficient.

Alternative definitions:
The maximam number of linearly independent columns of the m-
by-n matrix A with entries in the field F is equal to the dimension
of the column space of A (the column space being the subspace of
Fm generated by the columns of A). Since the column rank and the
row rank are the same, we can also define the rank of A as the
dimension of the row space of A. If one considers the matrix A as
a linear map
f : Fn → Fm
with the rule
f(x) = Ax
then the rank of A can also be defined as the dimension of the
image of f (see linear map for a discussion of image and kernel).
This definition has the advantage that they can be applied to any
linear map without need for a specific matrix. The rank can also be
defined as n minus the dimension of the kernel of f; the rank-
nullity theorem states that this is the same as the dimension of the
image of f. Another equivalent definition of the rank of a matrix is
the order of the greatest non-vanishing minor in the matrix.

Properties:
We assume that A is an m-by-n matrix over the field F and
describes a linear map f as above.
only a zero matrix has rank zero.

f is injective if and only if A has rank n (in this case, we say that A
has full column rank).
f is surjective if and only if A has rank m (in this case, we say that
A has full row rank).
In the case of a square matrix A (i.e., m = n), then A is invertible if
and only if A has rank n (that is, A has full rank).

If B is any n-by-k matrix, then

As an example of the "<" case, consider the product

Both factors have rank 1, but the product has rank 0.

If B is an n-by-k matrix with rank n, then
If C is an l-by-m matrix with rank m, then

The rank of A is equal to r if and only if there exists an invertible

m-by-m matrix X and an invertible n-by-n matrix Y such that

where Ir denotes the r-by-r identity matrix.

Sylvester’s rank inequality: If A and B are any n-by-n matrices,

then

Subadditivity:

when A and B are of the same dimension. As a consequence, a

rank-k matrix can be written as the sum of k rank-1 matrices, but
not less. The rank of a matrix plus the nullity of the matrix equals
the number of columns of the matrix (this is the "rank theorem" or
the "rank-nullity theorem").

Rank of matrix and corresponding Gram matrix is equal:

This can be shown by proving equality of their null spaces. Null

space of the Gram matrix is given by vectors x for which ATAx =
0. If this condition is fulfilled, also holds 0 = xTATAx = | Ax | 2.

Computation:

The easiest way to compute the rank of a matrix A is given by the

Gauss elimination method. The row-echelon form of A produced
by the Gauss algorithm has the same rank as A, and its rank can be
read off as the number of non-zero rows.
Consider for example the 4-by-4 matrix

We see that the second column is twice the first column, and that
the fourth column equals the sum of the first and the third. The first
and the third columns are linearly independent, so the rank of A is
two. This can be confirmed with the Gauss algorithm. It produces
the following row echelon form of A:

which has two non-zero rows.

When applied to floating point computations on computers, basic
Gaussian elimination (LU decomposition) can be unreliable, and a
rank revealing decomposition should be used instead. An effective
alternative is the singular value decomposition (SVD), but there
are other less expensive choices, such as QR decomposition with
pivoting, which are still more numerically robust than Gaussian
elimination. Numerical determination of rank requires a criterion
for deciding when a value, such as a singular value from the SVD,
should be treated as zero, a practical choice which depends on both
the matrix and the application.

Applications:
One useful application of calculating the rank of a matrix is the
computation of the number of solutions of a system of linear
equations. The system is inconsistent if the rank of the augmented
matrix is greater than the rank of the coefficient matrix. If, on the
other hand, ranks of these two matrices are equal, the system must
have at least one solution. The solution is unique if and only if the
rank equals the number of variables. Otherwise the general
solution has k free parameters where k is the difference between
the number of variables and the rank.
In control theory, the rank of a matrix can be used to determine
whether a linear system is controllable, or observable.

Generalization:
There are different generalisations of the concept of rank to
matrices over arbitrary rings. In those generalisations, column
rank, row rank, dimension of column space and dimension of row
space of a matrix may be different from the others or may not
exist. There is a notion of rank for smooth maps between smooth
manifolds. It is equal to the linear rank of the derivative.
What is rank?

The maximal number of linearly independent columns of the m-by-n matrix

A with entries in the field F is equal to the dimension of the column
space of A (the column space being the subspace of Fm generated by the
columns of A). Since the column rank and the row rank are the same, we
can also define the rank of A as the dimension of the row space of A. If
one considers the matrix A as a linear map

f: Fn → Fm

with the rule

f(x) = Ax

Rank of a Matrix

The maximum number of linearly independent rows in a matrix A is

called the row rank of A, and the maximum number of linearly
independent columns in A is called the column rank of A. If A is an m by
n matrix, that is, if A has m rows and n columns, then it is obvious that

What is not so obvious, however, is that for any matrix A,

• the row rank of A = the column rank of A

Because of this fact, there is no reason to distinguish between row rank
and column rank; the common value is simply called the rank of the
matrix. Therefore, if A is m x n, it follows from the inequalities in (*) that

where min (m, n) denotes the smaller of the two numbers m and n (or
their common value if m = n). For example, the rank of a 3 x 5 matrix can
be no more than 3, and the rank of a 4 x 2 matrix can be no more than 2.
A 3 x 5 matrix,

can be thought of as composed of three 5-vectors (the rows) or five 3-

vectors (the columns). Although three 5-vectors could be linearly
independent, it is not possible to have five 3-vectors that are independent.
Any collection of more than three 3-vectors is automatically dependent.
Thus, the column rank—and therefore the rank—of such a matrix can be
no greater than 3. So, if A is a 3 x 5 matrix, this argument shows that

in accord with (**).

The process by which the rank of a matrix is determined can be
illustrated by the following example. Suppose A is the 4 x 4 matrix

The four row vectors,

are not independent, since, for example

The fact that the vectors r3 and r4 can be written as linear combinations
of the other two ( r1 and r2, which are independent) means that the
maximum number of independent rows is 2. Thus, the row rank—and
therefore the rank—of this matrix is 2.

The equations in (***) can be rewritten as follows:

The first equation here implies that if −2 times that first row is added to
the third and then the second row is added to the (new) third row, the
third row will be become 0, a row of zeros. The second equation above
says that similar operations performed on the fourth row can produce a
row of zeros there also. If after these operations are completed, −3 times
the first row is then added to the second row (to clear out all entire below
the entry a11 = 1 in the first column), these elementary row operations
reduce the original matrix A to the echelon form

The fact that there are exactly 2 nonzero rows in the reduced form of the
matrix indicates that the maximum number of linearly independent rows
is 2; hence, rank A = 2, in agreement with the conclusion above. In
general, then, to compute the rank of a matrix, perform elementary row
operations until the matrix is left in echelon form; the number of nonzero
rows remaining in the reduced matrix is the rank. [Note: Since column
rank = row rank, only two of the four columns in A— c1, c2, c3, and c4—
are linearly independent. Show that this is indeed the case by verifying
the relations

(and checking that c1 and c3 are independent). The reduced form of A

makes these relations especially easy to see.]

Example 1: Find the rank of the matrix

First, because the matrix is 4 x 3, its rank can be no greater than 3.
Therefore, at least one of the four rows will become a row of zeros.
Perform the following row operations:

Since there are 3 nonzero rows remaining in this echelon form of B, rank
of B is 3.

Example 2: Determine the rank of the 4 by 4 checkerboard matrix

Since r2 = r4 = −r1 and r3 = r1, all rows but the first vanish upon row-
reduction:

Since only 1 nonzero row remains, rank C =1

The matrix has a zero determinant and is therefore singular. It has no

inverse. If you look the matrix you see that it has two identical rows
(and two identical columns). In other words, the rows are not
independent. If one row is a multiple of another, then they are not
independent, and the determinant is zero. (Equivalently: If one
column is a multiple of another, then they are not independent, and
the determinant is zero.)

The rank of a matrix is the maximum number of independent rows (or,

the maximum number of independent columns). A square matrix
An×n is non- singular only if its rank is equal to n.
 Determining Rank of Matrix

[a].One can determine the rank of even large matrices by using

row and column operations to put the matrix in a triangular
form. The method presented here is a version of row
reduction to echelon form, but some simplifications can be
made because we are only interested in finding the rank of
the matrix.

The foundation of this method is that the rank of a matrix is left

invariant by the following operations:

Permuting rows

Permuting columns

Adding a multiple of a row to another row multiplying a row by

an invertible scalar .The last operation is really not needed,
but it can be convenient. For instance, if some of the
numbers in the matrix are huge, one may want to use this
operation to keep the numbers in a reasonable range or, if
one has a matrix of integers, one may want to cancel
denominators so that one does not have to deal with
fractions.

These operations can be used to put the matrix in a triangular

form; once this is done, all one has to do to determine the
rank is count how many non-zero rows there are. A
systematic way of going about this is as follows:

If there are no rows or all the entries of the matrix are zero, you
are done.

Permute rows and columns so as to put a non-zero element in

the position of the matrix.

Subtract multiples of the first row so as to put all the entries in

the first column except the first one zero.
Repeat the process starting at step 1 with the sub matrix gotten
by throwing away the first row and the first column.

Let us illustrate this with the following matrix:

We interchange the first two rows to put a in the position:

We subtract the first row from the third and the fifth rows:

We now concentrate on the sub matrix gotten by ignoring the

first column and the first row:
Since the position of this sub matrix is not zero, we do not
need to do any permuting. Instead, we go to the next step
and add the second column to the third and fifth columns:

We now narrow our focus to the submatrix gotten by throwing

out the first and second rows and columns:

Since the entry of this submatrix is again not zero, we do

not need to do any permuting. Thus, we move to the next
step and subtract twice the third row from the fifth row:

We now narrow our focus to the submatrix gotten by throwing

out the first, second, and third rows and columns:
Since the entry of this sub matrix is zero, we must make a
permutation. We will swap the fourth and the fifth columns:

We add twice the fourth row to the fifth row:

1 1 0 0 0
0 1 1 0 0
0 0 1 1 0
0 0 0 2 0
0 0 0 -2 0
We narrow our focus to the sub matrix gotten by ignoring all but
the fifth row and column:

Since the sole entry of this sub matrix is zero, we are done and
have a triangular matrix. Since there are four non-zero rows,
the rank is 4.

In the presentation above, certain entries of the matrix have been

shown in boldface. When using the method in practice, it is only
necessary to write these entries -- the other entries can be ignored
and need not be copied from step to step.
[b].The easiest way to compute the rank of a matrix A is given by
the Gauss elimination method. The row-echelon form of A
produced by the Gauss algorithm has the same rank as A,
and its rank can be read off as the number of non-zero rows.

Consider for example the 4-by-4 matrix

We see that the second column is twice the first column, and
that the fourth column equals the sum of the first and the
third. The first and the third columns are linearly
independent, so the rank of A is two. This can be confirmed
with the Gauss algorithm. It produces the following row
echelon form of A, which has two non-zero rows. When
applied to floating point computations on computers, basic
Gaussian elimination (LU decomposition) can be unreliable,
and a rank revealing decomposition should be used instead.
An effective alternative is the singular value decomposition
(SVD), but there are other less expensive choices, such as
QR decomposition with pivoting, which are still more
numerically robust than Gaussian elimination. Numerical
determination of rank requires a criterion for deciding when a
value, such as a singular value from the SVD, should be
treated as zero, a practical choice which depends on both the
matrix and the application
[c]. (Row rank of a Matrix) the number of non-zero rows in the
row reduced form of a matrix is called the row-rank of the
matrix.

By the very definition, it is clear that row-equivalent matrices

have the same row-rank. For a matrix we write ` '
to denote the row-rank of

EXAMPLE:

Determine the row-rank of

Solution: To determine the row-rank of we proceed as follows.

The last matrix in Step 1d is the row reduced form of which
has non-zero rows. Thus, This result can
also be easily deduced from the last matrix in Step 1b.

Determine the row-rank of

Solution: Here we have

From the last matrix in Step 2b, we deduce

Let be a linear system with equations and unknowns.

Then the row-reduced echelon form of agrees with the first
columns of and hence

The reader is advised to supply a proof.

Consider a matrix After application of a finite number of

elementary column operations.

The matrix we can have a matrix, say which has the

following properties:

The first nonzero entry in each column is

A column containing only 0’s comes after all columns with at
least one non-zero entry.

The first non-zero entry (the leading term) in each non-zero

column moves down in successive columns.

Therefore, we can define column-rank of as the number of

non-zero columns in It will be proved later that