MTH 102: LINEAR ALGEBRA
PROBLEM SET 1
1. Use the method of substitution to find all solutions to the following
system of equations.
(1 − i)x1 − ix2 = 0
2x1 + (1 − i)x2 = 0
2. Let a, b be constants. Solve the following system of equations.
2x1 + x2 = a
2x1 + 6x2 = b
3. For what values of λ does the system of equations have non-trivial
solutions?
(λ − 3)x + y = 0
x + (λ − 3)y = 0
√ √
4. Let F = Q( 2) = {a + b 2 | a, b ∈ Q}. Show that F is a field with
respect to usual addition and multiplication.
5. Let V = {f : R → R | f (1) = 0}. Check that it is a vector space over
R. What happens if we take f (1) = c, where c is a non-zero constant?
Is it still a vector space?
6. Let V = R+ , the set of positive real numbers. Define the “sum” of two
elements x and y in V to be their product x.y (in the usual sense), and
define “scalar multiplication” of an element x in V by a scalar c as xc .
Prove that V is a vector space over R. What is the zero element in V ?
7. Let V = {f : R → R | f (−x) = f (x)}. Is V a vector space over R?
8. Let V = {(x, y, z) ∈ R3 | z = 0}. Is V a vector space over R with
respect to usual addition and scalar multiplication (coordinate wise)?
9. Let V = {(x, y, z) ∈ R3 | 3x + 4y = 1, z = 0}. Is V a vector space over
R with respect to usual addition and scalar multiplication (coordinate
wise)?
1
ßï ò ™
a b
10. Let V = M(2, C) = | a, b, c, d ∈ C . Show that V is a vector
c d
space over C with respect to usual addition of matrices and scalar
multiplication (multiplying a matrix by a scalar).