MA 106: Linear Algebra

Common Quiz Code: A-131

Day: Wednesday Date: 06 Feb 2019
Time : 08:15-9:15 AM Max Marks : 15

Q.No 1 Select the correct answer [1 × 5]

(a) Which of the following is NOT an elementary matrix?
       
1 0 0 −1 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 0
 0 1 0 0   0 0 0 1   0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0
       
(A)   (B)   (C)   (D) 
  
 0 0 1 0   0 1 0 0   0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0

  
0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
Ans: (B)

(b) Given a, b, c, d > 0, consider the following system of equations in the variables
x, y, z and t
x +y +z +t =a
x −y −z +t =b
−x −y +z +t =c
−3x +y −3z −7t =d

The number of solutions that this system has is equal to

(A) 0 (B) 1 (C) 2 (D) infinite.
Ans: (A). A row echelon form of the augmented matrix is
 
1 1 1 1 a
 0 1 1 0 1/2(a − b)
 
. Thus a solution exists

 0 0 1 1 1/2(a + c)


0 0 0 0 1/4(d + 3a) − 1/2(a − b) + 1/2(a + c)
iff 1/4(d + 3a) − 1/2(a − b) + 1/2(a + c) = 0. That is iff 3a + 2b + 2c + d = 0.
As a, b, c, d > 0, this is impossible.

(c) Let P = {(1, 1, 2)t , (1, 2, 5)t , (5, 3, 4)t } and Q = {(1, 1, 1)t , (1, 2, 3)t , (2, −1, 1)t }.
Which of the following are bases for R3 ?
(A) Only P (B) Both P and Q (C) Only Q (D) Neither P nor Q.
Ans: (C). Can check that Q is a basis while P is not.
 
−2 −3 −3 0
 −1 0 −1 0 
 
(d) Let A =  . The number of distinct eigenvalues of A equals
 5 5 6 0 
1 0 0 0
 (A) 4 (B) 2 (C) 1 (D) 3
Ans: (D), easy to check that Char polyA (x) = x(x − 1)2 (x − 2) and so there are
three distinct eigenvalues.

(e) Let A be an n × n matrix with real entries.

P : All vectors in the null space of A are orthogonal to all vectors in the row
space of A.
Q: All vectors in the null space of A are orthogonal to all vectors in the column
space of A.
Which of the following is ALWAYS true?
(A) Only P (B) Only Q (C) Both P and Q (D) Neither P nor Q.
Ans. (A), only P

Q. No 2 Fill in the blanks: [1 × 5]

(a) For the point P = (x, y) in R2 , let (x0 , y 0 ) be its reflection about the line x+y = 0.
The matrix M such that (x, y)M = (x0 , y 0 ) equals − − − − − − − − − − −−.
 
0 0 0 −1
Clearly, x = −y and y = −x. Thus M =
−1 0
 
1 2 3 4
 5 6 7 8 
 
(b) If A =  2 2 2 2 , the nullity of A is − − − − − − − − −.
 1 2 3 4 
52 62 72 82
 
1 0 1 4
 0 2 2 0 
 
Ans. 1 as an echelon form of A equals A0 = 
 0 0 4 12 

0 0 0 0

6.5 −2.5
 
2.5
(c) Given A =  −2.5 6.5 −2.5 , the topmost row of the matrix B such that
0 0 4
2
B = A is − − − − − − − − − − −−.
Eight answers exist.
 
1 1 0
Diagonalising as usual, we get P −1 AP = D where P =  1 −1 1 , P −1 =
0 0 1
1/2 −1 ±2
     
1/2 4 0 0 0 0
 1/2 −1/2 0 and D = 0
  9 0 . Defining D0 =  0 ±3 0 ,
0 0 1 0 0 4 0 0 ±2
0 −1 2
B = PD P is such that B = A. One can check that corresponding to

2
 the eight choices of D0 , we get eight square roots of A. For example, B =
5/2 −1/2
 
1/2
 −1/2 5/2 −1/2  is one corresponding to the diagonal being [2, 3, 2].
0 0 2
Thus one answer is [5/2, −1/2, 1/2]. Similarly, find the other answers.

(d) For this problem, scale all non-zero vectors to unit vectors after running the
Gram-Schmidt algorithm. The third vector output by the Gram-Schmidt algo-
rithm when the input sequence of vectors is ((1, 1, 0, 1)t , (1, −2, 0, 0)t , (1, 0, −1, 2)t )
is − − − − − − − − − − −−.
√ √
(1/ 105)[−4, −2, −7, 6]t . Any scalar multiple (1/ α2 × 105)[−4α, −2α, −7α, 6α]
is OK.
If the vectors are v1 , v2 , v3 , then they are linearly independent. These are the
input to the GS algorithm. Let the output be u1 , u2 and u3 . One can check
√ √
that u1 = (1/ 3)v1 , and u2 = v2 − hv2 , u1 iu1 = (1/ 42)[4, −5, 0, 1]t and that
√
u3 = v3 − hv3 , u2 iu2 − hv3 , u1 iu1 = (1/ 105)[−4, −2, −7, 6]t .
 
3 1 2
(e) The middle row of the inverse of the matrix  1 2 1  is − − − − − − − − −.
1 1 1
1 −3
 
1
[0 1 − 1]. Indeed one can find the inverse of A to be A−1 =  0 1 −1 
−1 −2 5

Q. No 3 State whether TRUE or FALSE [1 × 5]

 
x 2 0 3
1 2 3 3
 
(a) The set of x ∈ R for which the matrix A =   is invertible is
 
 1 0 1 1 
1 1 1 3
infinite.
True. det(A) = 4x + 2. Thus the matrix is invertible whenever x 6= −1/2,
which is an infinite set.

(b) Let V ⊆ Rn be a vector space and let v1 , . . . , vk be linearly independent vectors

in V . Define v = ki=1 αi vi where each αi ∈ R. Then, v − v1 , . . . , v − vk are
P

linearly independent.
False. This happens iff ki=1 αi 6= 1.
P

(c) Let A be an m × n matrix and let Ax = 0 have infinitely many solutions. Then
Ax = b will have also have infinitely many solutions.
False.

3
  
3 0 0 0
 −6 4 1 5
 
(d) Let B =  . Then, the algebraic and geometric multiplicity of

 2 1 4 −1 
4 0 0 −3
λ = 3 coincide.
2
 − 3) (x + 3)(x −
False. The algebraic multiplicity is 2 as Char polyB (x) = (x  5)
0 0 0 0
 −6 1 1 5 
 
and the geometric multiplicity is 1 as nullity of B − 3I =   is
 2 1 1 −1 
4 0 0 −6
 
2 1 1 5
 0 2 2 4 
 
1. To see this, note that an echelon form of B − 3I is   is 1.
 0 0 0 6 
0 0 0 0
   
1 3 3 1 0 0
(e) The matrices A =  −3 −5 −3  and B =  0 −2 0  are similar.
3 3 1 0 0 −2
True. Diagonalise A to get B.