Department of Mathematical Sciences
Rajiv Gandhi Institute Of Petroleum Technology, Jais
Applied Mathematics - II (MA 124)
April 2026 Problem Set 12 G.R. + P.D.
F denotes either the field of real numbers R or the field of complex numbers C.
Bases and Dimension
1. Are the vectors
v1 = (1, 1, 2, 4) , v2 = (2, −1, −5, 2) , v3 = (1, −1, −4, 0) , v4 = (2, 1, 1, 6)
linearly independent in R4 ? Find a basis for the subspace of R4 spanned by v1 , v2 , v3
and v4 .
2. Show that the vectors
α1 = (1, 0, −1) , α2 = (1, 2, 1) , α3 = (0, −3, 2)
form a basis for R3 . Express each of the standard basis vectors as a linear combination
of α1 , α2 and α3 .
3. In M3×2 (R), prove that the set
1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
S = 0 0 , 1 1 , 0 0 , 1 0 , 0 1
0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1
is linearly dependent. Find the dimension of span(S).
4. Let W be the space of all ( x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 ) ∈ R5 which satisfy
4
2x1 − x2 + x3 − x4 =0
3
2
x1 + x3 − x5 = 0
3
9x1 − 3x2 + 6x3 − 3x4 − 3x5 = 0.
Find a basis for the subspace W.
all 2 × 2square matrices over the field R. Let W1 be the set of all
5. Let V be the space of
x −x
matrices of the form , where x, y, z ∈ R, and W2 be the set of all matrices of
y z
a b
the form , where a, b, c ∈ R.
−a c
(i) Prove that W1 and W2 are subspaces of V.
(ii) Find the dimensions of W1 , W2 and W1 ∩ W2 .
6. Let v1 , v2 , v3 be linearly independent vectors. Define
u1 = v2 + v3 , u2 = v3 + v1 , u3 = v2 + v1
and
w1 = v 2 − v 3 , w2 = v 1 − v 3 , w3 = v 1 − v 2 .
Show that
(a) u1 , u2 and u3 are linearly independent.
(b) w1 , w2 and w3 are linearly dependent.
7. Find a basis (and the dimension) for each of the following subspaces of 3 × 3 real
matrices:
(a) All diagonal matrices.
(b) All symmetric matrices (A T = A).
(c) All skew-symmetric matrices (A T = − A).
Generalize your answers to n × n matrices.
8. Determine the bases and dimensions of the row space, column space and the solution
space of the matrix
1 2 0 3 0
1 2 −1 −1 0
A= 0 0 1 4 0 .
2 4 1 10 1
0 0 0 0 1
9. Show that two vectors in a vector space are linearly dependent if and only if one of
these is a scalar multiple of the other.
10. Show that the set B = {1, ( x − 1), ( x − 1)2 , ( x − 1)3 } is a basis for the set of all poly-
nomials having degree less than or equal to 3. Find the coordinates of the polynomial
x2 relative to B .
11. Consider the subsets B1 = {(1, 1), (1, −1)} and B2 = {(2, 3), (3, 2)} of R2 . Show that
both B1 and B2 are bases for R2 . Find the coordinates of the vector v = (5, 6) relative
to the bases B1 and B2 , respectively.
Linear Transformations and the Rank-Nullity theorem
12. Which of the following functions T from R2 into R2 are linear transformations ?
a) T ( x1 , x2 ) = x12 , x2
b) T ( x1 , x2 ) = (sin x1 , x2 )
c) T ( x1 , x2 ) = ( x1 − x2 , 0) d) T ( x1 , x2 ) = (| x1 |, x2 )
13. Find the range, rank, null space and nullity for the mappings from the above problem
which are linear transformations.
14. Find the range, rank, null space and nullity for the zero transformation and the identity
transformation on a finite-dimensional vector space V.
2
15. Describe explicitly a linear transformation from R3 to R3 which has as its range the
subspace spanned by (1, 0, −1) and (1, 2, 2).
16. Let V be the vector space of all n × n matrices over the field R, and let B be a fixed
n × n matrix. If
T ( A) = AB − BA,
verify that T is a linear transformation from V into V.
17. Is there a linear transformation T from R3 to R2 such that T (1, −1, 1) = (1, 0) and
T (1, 1, 1) = (0, 1) ?
18. Let α1 = (1, −1), α2 = (2, −1), α3 = (−3, 2) and β 1 = (1, 0), β 2 = (0, 1), β 3 = (1, 1).
Is there a linear transformation T from R2 to R2 such that T (αi ) = β i for i = 1, 2, 3?
−1 0 1 2
19. Let A = 3 4 −2 5 be a 3 × 4 matrix. Then a map T : R4 → R3 defined by
1 4 0 9
T ( x ) = Ax is a linear transformation (considering x ∈ R4 as a 4 × 1 column matrix).
Find the following.
(i) Null space or kernel of T and nullity( T ),
(ii) Range or image of T and rank( T ).
20. Define a linear transformation T : P2 (R) → M2×2 (R) by
f (1) − f (2) 0
T (f) = , for all f ∈ P2 (R),
0 f (0)
where P2 (R) denotes the vector space of all real polynomials having degree less than
or equal to 2. Find the range of T, and rank( T ).
21. Consider a linear transformation T : R2 → R2 such that T (1, 0) = (1, 4), and T (1, 1) =
(2, 5). What is T (2, 3)? Is T one to one?
Definition: A linear transformation from a vector space V to itself is called a linear
operator on V.
22. Let T be a linear operator on R3 defined by
T ( x, y, z) = (3x + z, −2x + y, − x + 2y + 4z) .
(i) Find the matrix of T in the standard ordered basis for R3 .
(ii) Find the matrix of T in the ordered basis {α1 , α2 , α3 }, where α1 = (1, 0, 1), α2 =
(−1, 2, 1) and α3 = (2, 1, 1).
23. Let T be a linear operator on R3 defined by
T ( x, y, z) = (3x − 2z, y, 3x + 4y) .
Find the rank of T and nullity of T.
24. Let V and W be two vector spaces over the same field F. Let T1 and T2 be any two
linear transformations from V to W. Show the following.
3
(a) The mapping T defined by T (v) = T1 (v) + T2 (v) for all v ∈ V is a linear transfor-
mation from V to W.
(b) For any λ ∈ F, the mapping S defined by S(v) = λ T1 (v) for all v ∈ V is a linear
transformation from V to W.
25. Let T1 be a linear transformation from V to W, and T2 be any linear transformation
from W to U. Show that the composite T2 ◦ T1 of T1 and T2 is a linear transformation
from V to U. Show that ker( T1 ) ⊆ ker( T2 ◦ T1 ).
Definitions: Recall that a function f : A −→ B is said to be one-to-one (or, injective),
if for every pair of distinct elements x, y in A, their images f ( x ), f (y) in B are distinct.
Equivalently, f : A −→ B is injective ⇔ for all x, y ∈ A, f ( x ) = f (y) ⇒ x = y.
We say that f is onto (or, surjective) if for every element b in B, there is an element a
in A such that f ( a) = b, that is, every element in the codomain of f has a preimage in
the domain of f (In this case, Im( f ) = B).
We say that f is bijective if it is both injective and surjective.
26. Let T : V −→ W be a linear transformation. Show that T is injective if and only if
ker( T ) = {0}.
27. Let T : V −→ W be a linear transformation of finite dimensional vector spaces. Prove
the following.
(a) If T is injective then dim(V ) ≤ dim(W ).
(b) If T is surjective then dim(V ) ≥ dim(W ).
(c) If T is bijective then dim(V ) = dim(W ).
(d) There does not exist a bijective linear transformation between Rm and Rn , where
m ̸= n.
Definitions: A bijective linear transformation is also called an isomorphism. We say
that two vector spaces V and W over the same field F are isomorphic, if there is an
isomorphism between them.
28. Let V denote the vector space R2 , and W denote the set of complex numbers consid-
ered as a vector space over R. Show that V and W are isomorphic.
29. If T : V −→ W is an injective linear transformation, then T maps any linearly inde-
pendent set of vectors in V to a linearly independent set of vectors in W, that is, if
{v1 , v2 , . . . , vn } is linearly independent in V then { T (v1 ), T (v2 ), . . . , T (vn )} is linearly
independent in W.
30. What are the matrices of the zero transformation and the identity transformation on
any finite dimensional vector space relative to any basis?
31. Let T be a linear transformation from R3 to R2 defined by
T ( x1 , x2 , x3 ) = ( x + x2 , 2x2 − x1 ).
(a) If B is the standard ordered basis for R3 and B ′ is the standard ordered basis for
R2 , what is the matrix of T relative to the pair B , B ′ ?
4
(b) If B = {(1, 0, −1), (1, 1, 1), (1, 0, 0)} and B ′ = {(0, 1), (1, 0)}, what is the matrix of
T relative to the pair B , B ′ ?
32. Let V be the space of all polynomials with real coefficients having degree less than or
equal to 3. Let D denote the differentiation operator on V which is a linear operator on
V. Find the matrix of D relative to the ordered basis B = {1, x, x2 , x3 }.
33. Let T be a linear operator on R3 , the matrix of which in the standard ordered basis is
1 2 1
A = 0 1 1 .
−1 3 4
Find a basis for the range of T and a basis for the null space of T.