Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani
Department of Mathematics
Linear Algebra and its Applications, MAC F211
First Semester 2025-26 Tutorial sheet-1 Instructor: Jitender Kumar
Topics Covered: Inner Product, Length, Orthogonality and Orthogonal Sets
1. Find the distance between
−4
0
u = −5 and z = −1 .
2 8
2. Verify the parallelogram law for vectors u and v in Rn :
∥u + v∥2 + ∥u − v∥2 = 2∥u∥2 + 2∥v∥2 .
3. Suppose a vector y is orthogonal to vectors u and v. Show that y is orthogonal to the
vector u + v.
4. Suppose y is orthogonal to u and v. Show that y is orthogonal to every w in
Span{u, v}.
5. Show that if x is in both W and W ⊥ , then x = 0.
6. Find the orthogonal complement W ⊥ of the subspace W = {(x, y) ∈ R2 | x + y = 0}
in R2 .
7. Show that {u1 , u2 , u3 } is an orthogonal set, where
−1
1 2
u1 = 0 ,
u2 = 4 , u3 = 1 .
1 1 −2
8
Express the vector x = −4 as a linear combination of u1 , u2 and u3 .
−3
1 −4
8. Compute the orthogonal projection of onto the line through and the origin.
7 2
2 7
9. Let y = and u = . Write y as the sum of a vector in Span{u} and a vector
6 1
orthogonal to u.
3 8
10. Let y = and u = . Compute the distance from y to the line through u and
1 6
the origin.
11. Let U be a square matrix with orthonormal columns. Explain why U is invertible.
12. Let U be an n × n orthogonal matrix. Show that the rows of U form an orthonormal
basis of Rn .
13. Given u ̸= 0 in Rn , let L = Span{u}. Show that the mapping x 7→ projL x is a linear
transformation.
14. Let U be an n × n matrix with orthonormal columns. Show that det U = ±1.