NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Department of Mathematics

2025-2026 (Semester 1) MA1513 Lecture Problem Set 2

To be discussed during lecture in week 2 (Aug 18/19, 2025). No need to submit the
answers.
To prepare for the discussion, students should view the ”Week 2 key video” before the
lecture.
Students who would like to try out the problems in advance may refer to the hints given
at the end of the problem set.
You need to use MATLAB commands for some of the questions.

1. A manufacturer makes three types of chairs A, B, C. The company has available

260 units of wood, 60 units of upholstery and 240 units of labor. The manufacturer
wants a production schedule that uses all of these resources. The various products
require the following amounts of resources.

A B C
Wood 4 4 3
Upholstery 0 1 2
Labor 2 4 5

(a) Find the inverse of the data matrix above and hence determine how many
pieces of each product should be manufactured.
(b) If the amount of wood is increased by 10 units, how will this change the
number of type C chairs produced?

2. (MATLAB) A horizontal elastic beam is supported at each end and is subjected

to forces f1 , f2 , f3 , f4 (in newton) at four points as shown in the diagram, with
amount of deflection y1 , y2 , y3 , y4 (in cm) respectively.

   
f1 y1
f 2  y 2 
Let f = 
f3  and y = y3 .
  

f4 y4
By Hook’s law from physics, we know the forces and deflections are related by the
following matrix equation:
y = Df
where D is a 4 × 4 matrix known as a flexibility matrix. The inverse D −1 of this
matrix is called the stiffness matrix.

1
 Suppose the flexibility matrix is given by
 
0.0040 0.0030 0.0010 0.0005
0.0030 0.0050 0.0030 0.0010
D= 0.0010 0.0030

0.0050 0.0030
0.0005 0.0010 0.0030 0.0040
(a) If forces of 10, 20, 30 and 10 newton are applied at the four points correspond-
ingly, find the respective deflections at these points.
(b) Suppose measurements at the four points show deflections of 0.08, 0.12, 0.16
and 0.12cm. Determine the forces at the four points.
(c) Determine the forces that produce a deflection of 0.1cm at the first point on
the beam, with zero deflections at the other three points. How is the answer
related to the columns of D −1 ?
3. (a) Find the determinant of each of the following matrices.
 
    1 0 0 1
−1 3 −4 2 0 1 1 2 0 0
(i) A =  2 4 1 , (ii) B = 0 2 −1, (iii) C = 
 
1 2 3 0.

−4 2 −9 0 −1 2
1 2 3 4
(b) (MATLAB) Use MATLAB command det to check your answers in part (a).
(c) Which matrices above are non-singular?
(d) Without any further computation, can you tell whether AB and CC T are
singular?
(e) Without performing Gaussian Elimination, can you tell whether the homoge-
neous systems ABx = 0 and CC T x = 0 have non-trivial solutions? Why?
4. Let u1 = (2, 1, 0, 3), u2 = (3, −1, 5, 2), and u3 = (−1, 0, 2, 1) and
v = (2, 3, −7, 3), w = (1, 1, 1, 1).
(a) Are v and w linear combinations of u1 , u2 , u3 ?
(b) Do v and w belong to span{u1 , u2 , u3 }?
(c) Is span{u1 , u2 , u3 } = span{u1 , u2 , u3 , v}?
Is span{u1 , u2 , u3 } = R4 ?
Justify your answers.

5. (a) How are span{(1, 0, 0)}, span{(−1, 0, 0)} and span{(1, 0, 0), (−1, 0, 0)} related?
Describe what geometrical objects do they represent in the xyz-space.
(b) Recall that the span of two non parallel vectors in R3 represents a plane in
the xyz-space that contain the origin.
(i) Find the linear equation of the plane P that represents span{(2, −1, 0), (−1, 1, 1)}.
(ii) Show that the vector (−2, −4, 2) is orthogonal to both (2, −1, 0) and
(−1, 1, 1). Use this to explain why vector (−2, −4, 2) is perpendicular to
the plane P in (i).

2
Hints
3
4 − 52
 
2
1. (a) −2 −7 4 .
1 4 −2
Let x, y, z be the number of type A, B, C chairs to be manufactured respectively.
Then set up a linear system in matrix equation form using the data matrix pro-
vided. Then solve for x, y, z using the inverse matrix approach. 30 chairs of type
A, 20 chairs of type B and 20 chairs of type C.
(b) Increased by 10. (Look at the (3,1)-entry of the inverse matrix.)

2. (a) (Use MATLAB to perform matrix multiplication) 0.135, 0.23, 0.25, 0.155.
(b) (Use MATLAB command inv to get D −1 ; you can type “≫ format rat” so
that the answers will be displayed as fractions) 12, 3/2, 43/2, 12.
(c) 160/3, −130/3, 70/3, −40/3.

3. (a) 0, 6, 24 (Compute the determinants directly by expanding into smaller deter-

minants). (c) There is a relation between determinant and singularity of matrices.
(d) There is a relation between singularity of matrices and the solutions of the
corresponding homogeneous systems.

4. (a) For each of v and w, you need to set up a vector equation and convert into a
linear system. (b) The answers follow from those of (a) immediately. (c) Yes; No.

5. Refer to the last part of section 2.2. For (b) part (i), recall from section 1.1 that a
plane in xyz-space is represented by a linear equation of the form ax + by + cz = d.
(Ans: x + 2y − z = 0.) For part (ii), do a rough sketch of the plane P together
with the two vectors (2, −1, 0) and (−1, 1, 1).