Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur
Department of Mathematics
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Assignment-1 Linear Algebra and Applications (MAL206)
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1. Prove that: if A and B are row-equivalent m × n matrices, the homogeneous systems of linear
equations AX = 0 and BX = 0 have exactly the same solutions.
2. Prove that: if A is an m × n matrix and m < n, then the homogeneous system of linear
equations AX = 0 has a non-trivial solution.
1 −i
3. Find a row-reduced echelon matrix which is row-equivalent to A = 2 2 . What are the
i 1+i
solutions of AX = 0?
4. Obtain row-reduced echelon form for the following matrices
1 1 2 3 1 2 −3 0
1 2 2 4
2 2 8 10 , , 2 4 −2 2 .
3 8 6 16
3 3 10 13 3 6 −4 3
3 −1 2
5. Let A = 2 1 1. For which triples (y1 , y2 , y3 ) does the system AX = Y have a solution?
1 −3 0
6. Define the rank of a matrix. Find the rank of the following matrices
1 3 0 2 1 1 1 2 4
0 0 1 4 −3 , 1 2 2 5 .
1 3 1 6 −4 1 3 2 6
7. Define the terms: field, vector space, subspace, basis, dimension, linear combination, linear
dependence, sum and direct sum.
8. True/False
(a) Every vector space contains a zero vector.
(b) A vector space may have more than one zero vector.
(c) In any vector space ax = ay implies that x = y.
(d) A vector in F n may be regarded as a matrix in Mn×1 (F ).
(e) In the polynomial space P (t) over some field F , only polynomials of the same degree can
be added.
9. A function f : R → R (reals) is an even function if f (−x) = f (x) for each real number x. Prove
that the set E of all even functions with the operations of addition and scalar multiplication
defined by (f + g)(x) = f (x) + g(x), and kf (x) = (kf )(x), where f, g ∈ E; k ∈ R is a vector
space. What about the set O of all odd functions?
1
10. Define addition and scalar multiplication on V = R2 by
(x1 , x2 ) + (y1 , y2 ) = (x1 + 2y1 , x2 + 3y2 ) and c(x1 , x2 ) = (cx1 , cx2 ).
Is V a vector space over R with these operations?
11. Prove that a non-empty subset of a vector space is a subspace if and only if it is closed under
addition and scalar multiplication.
12. Prove that the intersection of any number of subspaces of a vector space is a subspace. Is the
union of subspaces of a vector space also a subspace? Justify your answer.
13. Consider the matrix space Mn×n over R. Let U be subspace of upper triangular matrices and
L the subspace of lower triangular matrices. Show that V is the sum of U and L but not the
direct sum.
14. Let W1 and W2 be two subspaces of a vector space V such that V = W1 + W2 and W1 ∩ W2 =
{0}. Prove that each vector v ∈ V there are unique vectors α1 ∈ W1 and α2 ∈ W2 such that
v = α1 + α2 .
15. Consider the space R3 . Determine whether u1 = (1, 2, −3), u2 = (1, −3, 2) and u3 = (2, −1, 5)
are linearly independent?
1 2 3 −1
16. Consider the matrix space M2×2 . Determine whether the matrices A = ,B=
3 1 2 2
1 −5
and C = are linearly independent?
−4 0
17. Consider the polynomial space P3 (t). Determine whether the polynomials, u = t3 +4t2 −2t+3,
v = t3 + 6t2 − t + 4 and w = 3t3 + 8t2 − 8t + 7 are linearly dependent?
18. Prove that every two bases of a finite dimensional vector space have same number of elements.
19. Show that the columns of every invertible n × n matrix give a basis for Rn .
20. Let V be a vector space and dim V = n. Then any subset of V which contains more than n
elements is linearly dependent.
21. Let W1 and W2 be finite dimensional subspaces of a vector space V . Show that W1 + W2 is
finite dimensional and
dim W1 + dim W2 = dim (W1 + W2 )+ dim (W1 ∩ W2 ).
22. Show that the subspace U of R4 spanned by the vectors u1 = (1, 2, −1, 3), u2 = (2, 4, 1, −2)
and u3 = (3, 6, 3, −7) and the subspace W of R4 spanned by the vectors v1 = (1, 2, −4, 11)
and v2 = (2, 4, −5, 14) are equal; that is, U = W .
23. Define coordinate vector of a vector relative to a basis.
24. Consider real space R3 . Show that the set of vectors S = {u1 , u2 , u3 }, is a basis for R3 , where
u1 = (1, −1, 0), u2 = (1, 1, 0) and u3 = (0, 1, 1). Find the coordinate vector of v = (5, 3, 4)
relative to S.
25. Consider the polynomial space P2 (t) over R . Show that the set S = {1, t − 1, (t − 1)2 } is a
basis for P2 (t). Find the coordinate vector of v = 2t2 − 5t + 6 relative to S.
26. Let P be the change-of-basis matrix from a basis S to a basis S 0 in a vector space V . Then,
for any vector v ∈ V , we have P [v]S 0 = [v]S and hence P −1 [v]S = [v]S 0 .