Tutorial 3
MAM2084S, 2025, UCT
This tutorial tackles the concepts from the second week of lectures - Gauss reduction,
Generating Sets, Linear Independence and Basis & Dimension
1 3 7 −1
1. Consider the set S = 2 , 3 , 5 , 1
−2
0 2 6
5
(a) Show, using Gaussian elimination, that the vector 13 can be written as
−2
a linear combination of the vectors in S?
1
(b) Show that the vector 1 cannot be written as a linear combination of the
1
vectors in S.
(c) Remove (as few) vectors (as possible) from the set S to obtain a set of linearly
independent vectors.
(d) What is the dimension of ⟨S⟩, the set generated by S? Motivate your answer.
1 1 2 1 2
2. Consider the two sets of vectors S = , and T = , ,
1 −1 0 2 1
2
which are subsets of R .
(a) What is the dimension of R2 ? Using only this fact, what can you conclude
about the linear independence of the vectors in T ?
(b) Write down the set generated by S, ⟨S⟩. Show that each element of T is an
element of ⟨S⟩.
(c) Is S a basis for R2 ? Is T a basis for R2 ? Motivate your answers.
3. Consider an arbitrary set of vectors S = {v 1 , v 2 , v 3 } that is a subset of R4 . The
vectors are non-zero and different.
(a) Does the set S form a basis for R4 ? Motivate your answer?
(b) What is the largest possible dimensions of ⟨S⟩? What is the smallest possible
dimension of ⟨S⟩?
(c) Suppose it is given that dim⟨S⟩ = 2. What can you conclude about the linear
independence of the vectors in S?
1
(d) Suppose that it is given that dim⟨S⟩ = 3. Show that the set
S ′ = {v 1 , v 2 , v 3 , v 4 }
with
v4 · v1 = v4 · v2 = v4 · v3 = 0 ; v 4 · v 4 ̸= 0
is a basis for R4 . (Hint: Take the dot product of α1 v 1 + α2 v 2 + α3 v 3 + α4 v 4 = 0
with v 4 on both sides and solve for α4 )
4. (Hand-in problem:) Consider the set
a
S = b ; a + 2b − 2c = 0
c
which is a subspace of R3 .
(a) Describe the set S geometrically i.e. what kind of subset of R3 does it describe?
Specify a normal vector if it is relevant.
(b) Write down two different bases for this subspace. What is the dimension of
S?
5. Consider the matrix
1 3 5 7
A=
2 6 15 21
(a) Use Gauss reduction to compute the null space of A, N S(A).
(b) Write down a basis for N S(A).
(c) Show that ⟨C⟩ = R2 where
1 3 5 7
C= , ,
2 6 15 21
are the columns of the matrix A.
(d) Show that by combining the basis for N S(A) with the rows of A you obtain a
basis for R4 .
6. In this question you are given sets of candidate bases for different vector spaces.
Your task is to match the the appropriate set as a basis for the corresponding vector
2
space. The candidate bases are given by
1
−1 1
−1 −1 1
0 1 1 1 0 0
S1 = S2 = , S3 = , ,
0 0 −1 0 1 0
0
0 −1 0 0 −1
1 0 1
1 1 1 0
1 0 1 1 1 0 0
S4 = , , S5 = , , ,
0 2 2 1 0 0 0
1 2 3 0 0 1 1
(a) One of the sets is linearly dependent and thus cannot be a basis for any space.
Which one is it?
(b) Match the remaining candidate bases with the appropriate vector space below
a
a
b b
V1 = ; a + b + c + d = 0 V2 = ; a, b, c, d ∈ R
c
c
d
d
a
a
b b
V3 = ; a+b+c+d=0 ; c=d V4 = ; b=c=d=0
c
c
d d
(c) For each of the vectors spaces, write down their dimension. Note that you can
do this by looking at the basis or the number of free variables in the description
of the space.
7. Here is an example involving polynomials up to third order, P3 [x] (which is also a
vector space)
(a) Show, using the definition of linear independence, that the following set of
polynomials
T = 3x3 + 2x + 1, 2x3 + x, −x3 + 5
is linearly independent.
(b) Explain why dim(T ) does not make sense but dim⟨T ⟩ does. What is dim⟨T ⟩ ?
3
8. Consider the linear transformation that rotates vectors in R3 on the xy-plane. This
1 cos θ
is a linear transformation that maps the vector 0 to sin θ , the vector
0 0
cos θ cos 2θ 0 0
sin θ to sin 2θ and the vector 0 to 0 .
0 0 1 1
(a) Write down the matrix corresponding to this linear transformation, A.
(b) Now consider the following permutation transformation, P , that acts as
a a
P b = c .
c b
Find the matrix P .
(c) Show that P 2 = I.
(d) Compute P AP . What interpretation can you give to this matrix?
1 1 1
(e) Show that the set of vectors S = 0 , A 0 , P AP 0 forms a
0 0 0
basis for R3 .