Week 2

Lecturer: Nguyễn Hoàng Huy Tú | Course: Advanced mathematics

Part 1: Review and Understanding

This is a post-lecture worksheet. You must complete it and submit it before the first
class of the following week. The purpose of the questions in this section is to help you
reinforce your understanding of the key concepts presented in the most recent lecture.
Answer the given questions to recall and retain important definitions and principles
from the lecture. In addition, you are required to explain the main ideas or theories
in your own words to demonstrate a clear understanding of the material.

Exercise 1

a) Provide an example of a linear equation in three unknowns.

b) Provide an example of a non-linear equation in four unknowns.
c) Consider the system of equations:

x1 + x2 − x3 = 10,
2x1 + 3x3 = 5,
−x1 + 4x2 + 2x3 = 7.

Write down the coefficient matrix A, the constant term matrix B, and the
augmented matrix A.

Exercise 2

a) By using elementary row operations, reduce the following matrix to upper

triangular form:  
−1 2 4
A =  3 2 1 .
4 2 0

b) Provide an example of a 3 × 4 matrix in row-echelon form and a 4 × 4 matrix

not in row-echelon form.
c) By using elementary row operations, reduce the following matrix to row-
echelon form:  
1 −2 3 4
1 −2 4 5 .
2 −4 7 9

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Exercise 3

Let

x + y + 2z = 9,
2x + 4y − 3z = 1,
3x + 6y − 5z = 0.

a) Write down the corresponding augmented matrix.

b) Reduce the matrix to row-echelon form.
c) Use back-substitution to find the solutions.

Exercise 4

Let

x + y + z + t = 0,
z + t = 0.

a) Write down the corresponding augmented matrix. Is the matrix in row-

echelon form?
b) Identify the basic variables and the free variables.
c) Treat the free variables as parameters and solve for the basic variables.

Exercise 5

Let

x + my = 1,
mx + y = 1,

where m is a real number.

a) Determine the coefficient matrix A.
b) Find all values of m such that det(A) = 0. In this case, solve the system.
c) For values of m with det(A) ̸= 0, treat the system as the matrix equation
AX = B and solve for X.

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Part 2: Practice
This section is designed to be completed during guided class time and focuses on practic-
ing the application of the concepts learned. Solve the provided exercises, using the mate-
rial from the lecture to analyze and address mathematical problems. Engage in critical
thinking by explaining your reasoning and indicating alternative approaches to problem
solving. As a creative activity, formulate your own problem related to the lecture content
and present its solution together with a justification.

Exercise 6 (Solving Linear Systems)

a) Solve

x + y + 2z = 8,
−x − 2y + 3z = 1,
3x − 7y + 4z = 10.

b) Solve

2x − 2y = −2,
2x + y = 1,
3x + 2y = 1.

c) Solve

y + z + t = 0,
x + z + t = 0,
x + y + t = 0.

Exercise 7 (Four-Variable Linear System)

Solve the system

x + 2y + 3z − 2t = 6,
2x − y − 2z − 3t = 8,
3x + 2y − z + 2t = 4,
2x − 3y + 2z + t = −8.

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Exercise 8 (Solving a Homogeneous System)

Let

x − y + z − t = 0,
x + 2y + t = 0,
x + y + 3z − t = 0.

a) Without performing any computation, state a solution of the system.

b) Solve the system completely.

Exercise 9 (Inverse via System of Linear Equations)

Let ( )
1 1
A= .
0 1
a) Find A−1 .
b) Let ( )
a b
B=
c d
be a general 2 × 2 matrix, where a, b, c, d are real numbers. Compute AB.
c) From the equation AB = I, write down the system of linear equations in the
four unknowns a, b, c, d.
d) Solve the system. Compare B with A−1 .

Exercise 10 (Matrix Equation with a Singular Coefficient Matrix)

In Chapter I, we learned how to solve the first-order matrix equation AX = B

when A is invertible. Now consider the case where the inverse of A does not exist.
Let ( ) ( )
1 1 1 2
A= , B= .
2 2 2 4
Let ( )
a b
X=
c d
be a general 2 × 2 matrix, where a, b, c, d are real numbers.
a) Compute AX.
b) From the matrix equation AX = B, write down a system of linear equations
in a, b, c, d.
c) Solve the system and determine X.

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Exercise 11 (Parametric Linear System)

Let

x + y + mz = 1,
x + my + z = 1,
mx + y + z = 1.

a) Write down the corresponding augmented matrix A and reduce it to row-

echelon form.
b) Determine the values of m for which the system has a unique solution, in-
finitely many solutions, or no solution.
c) If the system is consistent, find all solutions.

Exercise 12 (Parametric Homogeneous System)

Let

x + y + 2z = 0,
2x − y + 2z = 0,
5x − y + mz = 0,

where m is a real number.

a) Solve the system when m = 0.
b) Determine the value(s) of m for which the system has infinitely many solu-
tions.

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Exercise 13 (Commuting Matrices)

Let ( )
2 1
A= .
3 −4
In this problem, we want to determine all matrices B such that BA = AB. In
other words, B commutes with A.
Let ( )
a b
B=
c d
be a general 2 × 2 matrix, where a, b, c, d are real numbers.
a) Compute AB and BA separately.
b) From the condition AB = BA, write down a system of linear equations in
the four unknowns a, b, c, d.
c) Solve the system of linear equations.
d) Determine all such matrices B.

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Part 3: Application
This problem set is intended for you to apply the mathematical skills you are learning.
It is also designed to practice communicating your work clearly. You can (and should!)
discuss your solutions with the other students, but you must write up your solutions by
yourself. Copying solutions is serious academic misconduct and will be penalised.

Networks and Traffic Flow

Networks are ubiquitous in the human-made environment, from physical ones such as
road networks and electrical grids to virtual ones such as the world wide web. They also
exist in the natural world, from connections between neurons in the brain to the structure
of fungi. Many processes occur on such networks and they can often be represented using
matrices and analysed using the tools of linear algebra. In this workshop, we’ll explore a
traffic network and see what Gaussian elimination can tell us.
If you have been driving, you might have noticed black cables on the road from time
to time. These are portable traffic counters. They are used to measure the number of
cars travelling on the road in a set period of time. By having two cables, the direction of
each car can be determined by the order in which the cables are run over.

In this workshop, we will consider the following traffic network consisting of one-way
streets:
The network consists of four junctions (coloured in blue), five “internal” streets be-
tween the junctions (labelled x1 to x5 ), and eight “external” streets that connect this
network to the rest of the traffic grid (labelled a1 to a8 ). The direction of traffic on each
street is indicated by the red arrow on the street.
Suppose traffic counters are placed on the eight external streets, and the average
numbers of cars per hour (travelling in the indicated direction) are found to be:

a1 = 40, a2 = 5, a3 = 15, a4 = 25, a5 = 30, a6 = 15, a7 = 10, a8 = 20.

Using these measurements, we would like to say something about the traffic on the
internal streets.

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 Assume that the cars are always in motion in the network, i.e., there are no cars
entering/leaving garages on the street, or stopping to park on the street.

Problems
a) By considering the traffic at each junction, write down four equations involving x1
to x5 .
b) Without further computation, explain why the eight traffic counters are not sufficient
to determine the traffic flow on all streets.
c) Without further computation, how many extra traffic counters do you expect you
need to determine the traffic flow on all streets? Briefly justify your answer.
d) Write down the corresponding augmented matrix, then compute the reduced row
echelon form of the augmented matrix. You should do this by hand and submit
your working.
e) Hence write down the solution for the average number of cars per hour on each
street (you may have parameters in your solution).
f) How many extra traffic counters do you need to completely determine all the traffic
flow in the networks? Where should you place the extra counters? Make sure you
explain and justify your answers.
g) Not every solution in the full solution space corresponds to a realistic traffic flow.
In particular we require that x1 , . . . , x5 be all non-negative. What is the minimum
number of cars per hour on the street x4 in real life?
h) In real life, what is the minimum total traffic possible in the network? In other
words, what is the minimum of x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 ? Find the traffic flow when the
minimum is realized and sketch the network labelling the traffic on all the streets
with direction.