Spring 2011 - Math 461

Midterm #1 - Practice Exam

1. [10pts] In each of the following, justify your answer carefully. Unjustified answers will
receive no credit.

(a) Let A be a n × n matrix such that the equation A~x = ~0 only has the trivial solution.
Is A invertible?
(b) Let A be a 3 × 4 matrix and ~b be a vector in R3 that is not in the set spanned by the
columns of A. Can A have a pivot in every row?
(c) Let T : R2 −→ R3 be a linear transformation. Can T be onto? Can T be one-to-one?

2. [20pts] Find all the solutions of the following linear system of equations (write your answer
in parametric vector form):


 x1 − 2x4 = −3
2x2 + 2x3 = 0


 x3 + 3x4 = 1
−2x1 + 3x2 + 2x3 + x4 = 5


3. [20pts] Consider the following matrix:

 
1 3 −1 −2
B =  −1 −5 5 8 ,
0 1 −2 h

where h is a real parameter.

(a) For what value(s) of h do the columns of B span R3 ? Justify your answer.
(b) For what value(s) of h does the equation B~x = ~0 have a non-trivial solution? Justify
your answer.

 
4. [15pts] Let A = a~1 a~2 a~3 a~4 be a 3 × 4 matrix, which is row equivalent to the matrix
 
1 4 −1 5
 0 2 4 −3 
0 0 0 5

(a) Find the reduced echelon matrix which is row equivalent to A.

(b) Are the columns of A linearly dependent? If so, find a linear dependence relation
among the columns of A.
  
1
5. Let T : R2 → R2
be a linear transformation that transforms the vector ~e1 into and
−3
 
2
the vector ~e2 into .
−4

(a) [5pts] Find the standard matrix of T .

 
1
(b) [5pts] Find the image of the vector ~c = under T .
−2
(c) [5pts] Find a linear transformation S : R2 → R2 such that S(T (~x)) = ~x for all ~x (S is
called the inverse of T , denoted T −1 ).

6. [20pts] Is the following matrix invertible? If so, find its inverse:

 
1 −2 1
 3 −3 0 
0 2 −1