Mandatory assignment 2 linear algebra

Sigrid Lind
September 2024

1.
I will only show how I calculate the first entry.

1 · 1 + (−1) · 3 + 1 · 2 = 0 (1)
After calculating the rest of the entries I get that:

BA = 0 (2)
Since B is in M3,3 and fulfills the condition that BA = 0, B is an element of V .

To check if W is a subspace of M3,3 it is necessary to prove that it is closed under addition and scalar
multiplication. Let E and F be elements in W . We need to prove that when you add two elements in W
and then multiply with D it gives the 0 matrix.

(E + F )D = ED + F D = 0 + 0 = 0 (3)
In the equation above I use a distributive property of matrix multiplication. Since E and F are elements
of W , ED and F D are both equal to zero. Now we need to prove that when an element in W is multiplied
by a scalar c and then multiplied by D it gives the 0 matrix.

(cE)D = c(ED) = c0 = 0 (4)

In the equation above I use another property of matrix multiplication. Since E is an element of W , ED
is equal to zero. Since it is closed under addition and scalar multiplication W is a subspace of M3,3 .

2.
A set of vectors is linearly independent if and only if there only exists the trivial linear combination of the
vectors that equals the zero vector:

c1 v1 + c2 v2 + · · · + ck vk = 0 (5)

c1 = 0, c2 = 0, ... ck = 0 (6)
We have three matrices:
     
1 2 0 1 2 −1
A= B= C= (7)
0 −1 3 −1 1 1
Now we set up an equation where a linear combination of the three matrices is equal to the zero matrix.

c1 A + c2 B + c3 C = 0 (8)
This can be written as a system of linear equations.

1
 1c1 + 0c2 + 2c3 = 0 (9)
2c1 + 1c2 − 1c3 = 0 (10)
0c1 + 3c2 + 1c3 = 0 (11)
−1c1 − 1c2 + 1c3 = 0 (12)

Which can then be turned into a coefficient matrix. I’m ignoring the column of all zeros for now, since
it wont change with elementary row operations. Now I solve the system by reducing to reduced row-echelon
form.
 
1 0 2
2 1 −1

0
 (13)
3 1
−1 −1 1
R2 − 2R1 → R2
R4 + R1 → R4
 
1 0 2
0 1 −5

0
 (14)
3 1
0 −1 3
R3 − 3R2 → R3
R4 + R2 → R4
 
1 0 2
0 1 −5

0
 (15)
0 16 
0 0 −2
1/16R3 → R3
(−1/2)R4 → R4
 
1 0 2
0 1 −5

0
 (16)
0 1
0 0 1
R1 − 2R3 → R1
R2 + 5R3 → R2
R4 − R3 → R4
 
1 0 0
0 1 0

0
 (17)
0 1
0 0 0
Now I turn the matrix back into a system of linear equations.

1c1 + 0c2 + 0c3 = 0 (18)

0c1 + 1c2 + 0c3 = 0 (19)
0c1 + 0c2 + 1c3 = 0 (20)
0c1 + 0c2 + 0c3 = 0 (21)

2
 c1 = 0 (22)
c2 = 0 (23)
c3 = 0 (24)
0=0 (25)

The system only has the trivial solution, where each scalar is equal to zero which means that the matrices
are linear independent.

3.
Theorem 4.14 If a matrix A is row equivalent to a matrix B in row-echelon form, then the nonzero row vectors
of B form a basis for the row space of A.

I’ll start off by reducing to row-echelon form:

 
1 2 3 3 2
4 6 4 8 9 (26)
3 4 1 4 8
R2 − 4R1 → R2
R3 − 3R1 → R3
 
1 2 3 3 2
0 −2 −8 −4 1 (27)
0 −2 −8 −5 2
R3 − R2 → R3 R1 + R2 → R1
 
1 0 −5 −1 3
0 −2 −8 −4 1 (28)
0 0 0 −1 1
(−1/2)R2 → R2
(−1)R3 → R3
 
1 0 −5 −1 3
0 1 4 2 −1/2 (29)
0 0 0 1 −1
Now its reduced to row-echelon form.

Since I have obtained the matrix above from matrix A by a sequence of elementary row operations, they
are row-equivalent. Therefore the nonzero rows of the above matrix form a basis for the row space of A.
Because there are three nonzero rows, the dimension of the row space is three. Theorem 4.15 states that the
row space and column space of an n x m matrix A have the same dimension. The dimension of the column
space is therefore three. By definition the rank of a matrix is the dimension of the row (and column space),
which again is three.

The nullspace of A is the solution space of the homogeneous system Ax = 0. To solve this system, you
could write the augmented matrix [A 0] in reduced row-echelon form. However, the last column of the aug-
mented matrix is all zeros and will not change as you perform row operations, so I will only find the reduced
row-echelon form of A. I have already found the row-echelon form, so I will only apply one final step to turn
it into reduced row-echelon form.

3
R2 − 2R3 → R2
R1 + R3 → R1
 
1 0 −5 0 2
0 1 4 0 3/2 (30)
0 0 0 1 −1
The system of equations corresponding to the reduced row-echelon form is:

x1 − 5x3 + 2x5 = 0 (31)

x2 + 4x3 + (3/2)x5 = 0 (32)
x4 − x5 = 0 (33)

Now I represent x3 and x5 as parameters:

x1 = 5s − 2t, x2 = −4s − (3/2)t, x3 = s, x4 = t, x5 = t (34)

This means that the solution space of Ax = 0 consists of all solution vectors of the form:
     
5s − 2t 5 −2
−4s − (3/2)t −4 −3/2
     
x=  s  = s 1  + t 0 
     (35)
 t   0   1 
t 0 1
This means that the basis for the nullspace of A consists of the vectors:
   
5 −2
−4 −3/2
   
 1  and  0  (36)
   
0  1 
0 1