Problems on Chapter 1

Problems on Chapter 1

1. How many entries does a 512 by 1024 matrix have?

2. Does a symmetric matrix have to be a square matrix?

3. Let A be a symmetric matrix. Show that for a natural number n we have AT A A 2 n .

n

4. Determine AB if possible for the following matrices:

1
1
(a) A , B 1 2 3 4 (b) A 2 , B 5 6
7 3

3 3
(c) A 1 2 , B (d) A , B 1 2
4 4

5. A curve C is given by the equations x z where

T
y
x a1t 3 b1t 2 c1t d1
y a2t 3 b2t 2 c2t d 2
z a3t 3 b3t 2 c3t d3
Write these equations in matrix form.

a a12 b11 b12

6. Let A 11 and B .
a21 a22 b21 b22
2
Determine col A row B where col A is the jth column of A and row B is the
j1
j j j j

jth row of matrix B. What do you notice about your result?

1 2 3 1 2

7. Let A 4 5 6 and B 3 4 . Find the second row of AB without evaluating all
7 8 9 5 6

of AB .

5 1 1 2 4 5 6
1 2 3 4
3 7 6 9 1 3 5
8. Let A 5 6 7 8 and B . Determine the fourth
9 10 11 12 2 5 7 8 6 1 3

1 3 5 3 4 6 8
1

column of AB without evaluating all the entries of AB.

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 Problems on Chapter 1

9. A non-negative matrix is a matrix in which all its entries are non-negative. A stochastic
matrix is a square matrix in which the sum of each of the rows is equal to one.
Give examples of non-negative stochastic matrices.

x
2 0 1
10. Consider the linear system Ax b where A and x y . Solve this
4 1 3 z

linear system for
0 2 1
(i) b (ii) b (iii) b
0 1 2

11. Find matrices A and B such that AB BA where A and B are not the identity or the
zero matrices.
For your chosen matrices determine A B .
2

12. Find two different non-invertible (singular) matrices, A and B, such that A B is
invertible.

13. Determine values of k so that the following linear system has:

x y kz 1
2 x ky 3 z 2
kx 2 y 6 z 0

(a) no solution (b) unique solution (c) infinite number of solutions

Ax O :
14. Consider the following linear system
1
2 2 2
x1
5
1 3 1
x2
1 4 4 , x
A 6
x3
7
1 1 2
4 x4

1 1 3
The reduced row echelon form of matrix A is given by R:
1 0 0 0

0 1 0 0
R 0 0 1 0

0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0

2

Solve Ax O .
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 Problems on Chapter 1

15. Find the inverse of the following matrices given that a 0, b 0 and c 0 :
1 0 0 1 0 0 a 0 0

(a) A 0 1 0 (b) B 0 b 0 (c) C 0 b 0
0 0 c 0 0 c 0 0 c

1 0 0 1 0 0

16. Let A a 1 0 and B 0 1 0 where a, b and c are non-zero numbers.
b 0 1 0 c 1

(ii) AB (iv) BA
1 1
Evaluate (i) AB (iii) BA

1 2 3

17. Find the inverse of matrix A 4 5 6 .
7 8 9

18. Find non-zero matrices A and B such that AB O where O is the zero matrix.

1 0 0

19. Let A 0 1 0 . Determine A 2013 .
0 0 1

1 2

3 4
20. Let A 5 6 . Find AT A .

7 8
9 10

0 0 1 a b c

21. Let E 1 0 0 . Write the matrix A c a b as a polynomial in the matrix E.
0 1 0 b c a

22. Find a matrix A which satisfies A n A O .

1 1 0 0

23. Let A 1 2 3 , B 2 and D 0 2 0 . Evaluate ADB.
3 0 0 3

3
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 Problems on Chapter 1

x 1 2 6

24. Let x y , A 2 2 1 . Determine xT Ax . (This xT Ax is called quadratic
z 6 1 3

form.)

25. Show the following result is false:

Let A be a real 2 by 2 matrix. If A 2 O then A O .

26. Let B be an invertible matrix such that AB O . Prove that A O .

1 2 3

27. Find the inverse of A 0 4 5 . Hence or otherwise solve the linear system:
0 0 6

Ax 6 9 6 where x x z
T T
y

8 10
28. Let A .
6 8
(a) Find A 2 , A3 .
(b) Show that
2n I if n is even

An n 3 5
2 3 4 if n is odd

where I is the identity matrix.

29. An anti-symmetric or skew symmetric matrix is a square matrix such that A AT .

Prove that if matrices A and B are anti-symmetric matrices then AB BA is also an
anti-symmetric matrix.

30. Prove that if AB is invertible then A is invertible and B is invertible.

31. Show that trace AB trace BA where A and B are square matrices.

32. A square matrix A is called a nilpotent matrix if A k O for some positive integer k.
(a) Give an example of a non-zero nilpotent matrix.
[Hint: Consider a triangular matrix.]
(b) Prove that if matrices A and B are nilpotent then AB is nilpotent.
(c) Let matrices A and B be nilpotent. Is the matrix A B nilpotent?
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 Problems on Chapter 1

33. The exponential of a matrix A which is denoted by e A is defined

1 1 1
eA I A A 2 A3 A n
2! 3! n!
0 1 2

Determine e for A 0 0 3 .
A

0 0 0

34. Prove that if A is invertible then A n (n is a natural number) is invertible.

35. Let A and B be n by n matrices such that A 2 B 2 I and AB BA O . Determine

A B
1
.

1 2 4
3 0 0 0 64

2 3 4
0 0 0 64 48
36. Let A and B .
3 4 0
0 0 64 48 4

4 0 0
0 64 48 4 5
(i) Show that AB 256I .
(ii) Find the inverse of matrix A.
(iii) Find the inverse of matrix B.

1 2 1 2 1 2 3 4 5
37. Let A , B , C . Determine A BC .
3 4 2 1 6 7 8 9 10

38. Let A be an n by 1 matrix. Prove that AAT is an n by n symmetric matrix.

39. Let A and B be symmetric matrices. Prove that AB may not symmetric.

40. Let A be an n by n matrix such that the entries aii 1 for i 1, 2, , n . Show that the
matrix A I in invertible.

a 0
41. Let A where a 0 . Prove that for any natural number n we have
0 1/ a
an 0
A
n
n
0 1/ a
Determine the inverse of A n .

42. Show that in general A B A 1 B 1 .

1
5
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 Problems on Chapter 1

43. Show that if matrix A2 is invertible then so is A.

44. Suppose the matrix A satisfies the following equation:

A 3 A 2 A 10I O
Show that matrix A is invertible (non-singular) and find an expression for the inverse
of A.

1
3
45. Find a 2 by 3 matrix A such that Ax b where x 2 and b .
3 4

46. Let A and B be same size invertible matrices. Find the first error, if any, in the following
derivation and give reasons for your answer:
AB BA A BB 1 A 1
1

AA 1 I

47. Let I A be an invertible matrix. Find the first error, if any, in the following derivation:
I A X B
X I A B
1

IB A 1B

1 4 7

48. Show that the vector u 2 is a linear combination of v 5 and w 8 .
3 6 9

1 2 3 0 1 1

49. Let A 1 1 2 and B 2 2 1 .
0 1 2 1 1 1

(i) Show that AB I .
(ii) Determine AT .
1

50. Show that if x1 , x 2 , , x n are solutions to the linear system Ax 0 then the linear
combination k1x1 k x 2 kn x n (where ks are non-zero scalars) is also a solution to
Ax 0 .

51. Let A be an invertible matrix. Prove that

6

I A AT A AT O where I is the identity matrix

1
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 Problems on Chapter 1

Find an expression for A 1 .

52. Let I A be an invertible matrix. Find the first error in the following derivation and give
reason for your answer:
X AX Y
X AX Y
X I A Y
X I A Y
1

53. Find the first error, if any, of the following derivation(assume all the matrices are
invertible):
A1A 2 A n A1A 2 A n I
1

A1A 2 A n A1A 2 A n A n1A n11 A 21A11 A n1A n11 A 21A11

1

54. Let P be an invertible matrix.

(i) Prove that if A PDP 1 then A m PDm P 1 where m is a natural number.
a 0 am 0
(ii) Let D . Show that D m
m
where m is a natural number.
0 b 0 b
1 2 5 0 1 2 1
(iii) Let A , D and P = . Show that PDP A and
9 8 0 2 3 3
by using the result of part (i) determine A8 .

55. Consider the linear system Ax b where matrix A is an n by k matrix, x and b are n by 1
column vectors. Decide whether the following statements are true. If they are true
provide a proof otherwise give a counter example:
(a) If b 0 then the linear system Ax b has a solution.
(b) If b 0 and n k then the linear system Ax b does not have a solution.
(c) If n k then the linear system Ax b has an infinite number of solutions.
(d) If n k and the linear system has a solution then it is unique.
(e) If n k and the linear system has a solution then there are an infinite number of
solutions.

56. (Method of least squares.) In engineering and science it is often the case that we need
to find a polynomial equation which best fits some experimental data. Suppose from
such an experiment we get the following data points (vectors):
1, 1.7 , 2, 2.6 , 3, 4 , 4, 5
Assume we are looking for a straight line y mx c approximation to this data. By
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substituting these data values we get the following equations:

 Problems on Chapter 1

m c 1.7, 2m c 2.6, 3m c 4, 4m c 5
(i) Write these equations in matrix form Ax b where A is the coefficient matrix and
m
x is the unknown column vector and b is the 4 by 1 column vector.
c
(ii) Determine AT A AT .
1

(iii) The least squares solution is given by evaluating

x AT A AT b
1

Determine x.
(iv) Draw the line y mx c for the m and c values found in part(iii) and the given data
points on the same graph.

57. (Cryptography). A simple way of encoding messages is to represent each letter of the
alphabet be its position in the alphabet and then add 3 to this. For example we can
create the table:

Alphabet A B C D W X Y Z

Position 1 2 3 4 23 24 25 26 27

Position 3 4 5 6 7 26 27 28 29 30

Table 1
The last column represents space and we nominate this by a value of 27 3 30 .
1 1 1

Encode the message Shall we meet by using the matrix A 0 1 1 and 3 by 1
3 3 4

column vectors. Add spaces in order to complete a 3 by 1 vector.
Find the decoding matrix.

58. Let A and B be matrices such that AB BA O . Prove that

A 2B3 B3 A 2

e2 x 0 e 2 nx 0
59. Let D be a diagonal matrix. Prove that where n is a
n
x
D
0 e 0 e nx
natural number.

60. Consider the following magic square:

8
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 Problems on Chapter 1

Figure 1
Each row, column and diagonal sum to 15 in this magic square. By writing 8 linear
equations and using any maths software find the unknowns in the magic square.

Brief Solutions to Problems on Chapter 1

1. 524288
2. Yes
5 6
1 2 3 4 3 6
4. (a) (b) 10 12 (c) 11 (d)
7 14 21 28 15 18 4 8

t3
x a1 b1 c1 d1 2
t
5. y a2 b2 c2 d2
t
z a d3
3 b3 c3
1
a b a b a11b12 a12b22
6. 11 11 12 21
a21b11 a22b21 a21b12 a22b22
7. 49 64
56

8. 144
232

1/ 2 1/ 2
9.
1/ 2 1/ 2
1/ 2 1 1/ 2 1/ 2 1/ 2

10. (i) s 1 (ii) 3 s 1 (iii) 0 s 1
1 0 1 0 1

1 2 1 0
12. A and B is an example.
3 6 0 0
13. (a) k 1, 2, 3 (b) k 1, 2, 3 (c) Cannot have infinite number of solutions
14. x1 x2 x3 x4 0
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15. (a), (b) and (c) are given by

 Problems on Chapter 1

1 0 0 1 0 0 1/ a 0 0

1 1 1
A 0 1 0 , B 0 1/ b 0 and C 0 1/ b 0
0 0 1/ c 0 0 1/ c 0 0 1/ c

1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0

16. (i) a 1 0 (ii) a 1 0 (iii) a 1 0 (iv) a 1 0
b c 1 ac b c 1 b ca c 1 b c 1

17. No inverse.
1 0 0 0
18. A , B
0 0 0 1
19. A
165 190
20.
190 220
21. aE3 bE 2 cE
22. I
23. 36
24. x 2 4 xy 2 y 2 2 yz 3z 2 12 xz
24 12 2
1
27. 0 6 5 and x y z 1
24
0 0 4
4 0 3 5
28. (a) A 2 and A 8
3

0 4 3 4
0 1
32. (a)
0 0
1 1 3

33. 0 1 3
0 0 1

1
35. A B
2
1 1
36. (ii) A 1 B (iii) B 1 A
256 256
29 38 47 56 65
37.
71 92 113 134 155
1 2 1 0
39. A and B
2 3 0 4
1/ a n 0
41. A n
1
10

0 an
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 Problems on Chapter 1

44. A 1
1
10
A2 A I

2 1 1
45. A (This A is not unique.)
9 1 1
48. 2 v w u .
0 2 1

49. 1 2 1
1 1 1

51. AT A AT
1

390113 260246
54.
1171107 780994
55. (a) and (e) True (b), (c) and (d) False
1 1 1.7

2 1 2.6 1 6 2 2 6 1.13
56. (i) A , b (ii) (iii)
3 1 4 20 20 10 0 10 0.50

4 1 5
57. 37, 15, 115, 60, 45, 210, 64, 38, 222, 32, 16, 104, 77, 54 and 258 .
1 1 0

3 1 1
3 0 1

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