QBUS1040: Foundations of Business Analytics
Assignment 2
Semester 2, 2023
Due: 11:59pm on Sunday, the 24th September (Sydney time)
This homework consists of five questions that require you to submit a written response.
You should submit a PDF to GradeScope and match the page number with the questions you
answered. You can find detailed instructions on scanning and submitting your assignments on
Canvas. If you fail to match the page to the corresponding question, the marker will not be
able to view your response, and thus, you will be awarded a 0 mark for the question.
You may not use notation, concepts or material from other classes (say, a linear algebra class
you may have taken) in your solutions. All the problems can be done using only the material
from this class, and we will deduct points from solutions that refer to outside material. You
must show all of your working.
Your solutions should be neat. We will deduct points from poorly written solutions even if they
are correct.
Late homework will not be accepted unless a special consideration was obtained.
Question: 1 2 3 4 5 Total
Points: 4 8 4 8 1 25
i
QBUS1040 Assignment 2 Semester 2, 2023
Question 1 Suppose you had the 9-vectors a1 , . . . , a5 as shown in the images below.
You perform k-means clustering with k = 2 and the resultant partitions were G1 =
{a1 , a3 , a4 } and G2 = {a2 , a5 }.
(a) (1 point) What would the vector z1 look like (as a 3×3 image), where z1 is the centroid
for group 1?
(b) (1 point) What would the vector z2 look like (as a 3×3 image), where z2 is the centroid
for group 2?
(c) (2 points) The final partitions that result from the k-means clustering algorithm de-
pend on the locations of the initial centroids, i.e. you may obtain different partitions
each time you run the k-means clustering algorithm. Would you expect a1 , a3 and a4
to always end up in the same cluster? Explain your answer. Assume ties are broken by
choosing the group with the smaller index i.e, if there are two equally close centroids
to ai , "ai − zj " = "ai − zl " choose j if j < l.
Question 2 Consider the list of n n-vectors:
! $ ! $ ! $
1 1 1
" 0% " 2% "2%
" % " % " %
" % " % " %
a 1 = " 0% , a 2 = " 0% , . . . , a n = " 3 %
" .. % " .. % " .. %
#.& #.& #.&
0 0 n
Suppose you ran the Gram-Schmidt algorithm on these vectors.
(a) (1 point) What is q1 ?
(b) (1 point) What is q2 ?
(c) (5 points) Show by mathematical induction that qi = ei .
(d) (1 point) Are the vectors {a1 , a2 , . . . , an } linearly independent?
Question 3 Consider the following block matrix.
' T (
A A
B=
I I
(a) (2 points) Explain why A must be a square matrix for this block matrix to be valid.
(b) (2 points) What are the dimensions of the block matrix B given that A is an n × n
matrix?
Due: 11:59pm on Sunday, the 24th September (Sydney time) Page 1 of 2.
QBUS1040 Assignment 2 Semester 2, 2023
Question 4 Consider the following incidence matrix:
! $
−1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
"1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0%
" %
"
A = " 0 −1 0 0 0 0 1 −1%
%
#0 0 0 0 −1 1 −1 1 &
0 0 −1 −1 1 −1 0 0
(a) (2 points) Draw the corresponding directed graph.
(b) (1 point) Calculate the matrix-vector product A1.
(c) (3 points) Suppose the nodes/vertices in the graph represent instagram users and the
edges describe the relationships between users. For example, edge 1 indicates that user
1 is following user 2. Give the real-world interpretation of the sign of (A1)i in words,
i.e. what does it mean if (A1)i is positive, negative or 0?
(d) (2 points) Suppose x is a vector corresponding to ‘likes’, where xi indicates the number
of ‘likes’ along an edge in the graph. For example x = (0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0) indicates 2
‘likes’ along edge 3, which means that user 5 has ‘liked’ two of user 2’s posts. How
would you modify A such that Ãx gives you the number of likes each user has received,
i.e. (Ãx)3 = 3 indicates user 3 has received 3 likes.
Question 5 (1 point) Draw the most super awesome dragon ever.
Marks awarded based on participation not merit.
Due: 11:59pm on Sunday, the 24th September (Sydney time) Page 2 of 2.