MTH 210 Fall 2009

Review for Final Exam

This review is simply a collection of problems from the semester – it is not

comprehensive. Solutions to the Problems are given at the end of this document.
Solutions to the Theory questions can be found throughout the textbook.

Chapter 1: Linear Equations

Problems

1. Determine the value(s) of k such that the system below does not have a unique
solution.
x  y  kz  3
x  ky  z  2
kx  y  z  1

2. Solve the system below by any means.

x1  x2  5 x3  3
x1  2 x3  1
2 x1  x2  x3  0

1 5
   
3. For what values of h will y be in span  v1 , v 2 , v 3  for v1   1 , v 2   4  ,
 2   7 
 3  4 
v 3   1  , and y   3  ?
 0   h 

0 0 4

     
4. Let u1   0  , u 2   3 , and u 3   1 . Does  u1 , u 2 , u 3  span R 3 ? Why or why
 2   8   5
not?

 1 5 
 
5. Given A   2 10  , find one nontrivial solution to Ax  0 by inspection.
 4 20 

6. Determine by inspection whether the sets below are linearly independent or

dependent. Give justifications.
  1  3   3   0   6  
(a)    , 4  (b)    , 4 ,  8   (c)  0
  2     5    

 1   8 
 1   1   0     9 
   10  ,  4    3   
(d)   6  ,     (e)    ,
  3  3   0    4   2  
    9   
 0 

(f)  v1 , v1  v 2  , given that  v1 , v 2  is linearly independent in R n .

5  2 1   1
7. Let T : R 2  R 2 map u    into   and v    into   . Compute T  4u  v  .
2 1  3 3

 3x  y 
 x   
8. Consider the transformation defined by T      5 x  7 y  . Is T a one-to-one
  y   x  3y 
 
transformation? Is T onto R ? Justify all claims.
3

Theory

A. Consider the set  v1 , v 2 ,  , v p  where each v i  R . Prove that the set is linearly
n

dependent if p  n.

B. Let  v1 , v 2 , v 3  be a linearly dependent set. Prove or disprove:  v1 , v 2 , v 3 , v 4  is a

linearly dependent set.
 x1  x2 
  x1    
C. Prove that the transformation T : R 2  R 3 defined by T       3 x2  is
  x2    2 x  6 x 
 1 2

linear. Also, find the matrix for this transformation.

D. Let T : R n  R m be a linear transformation. Prove that T is one-to-one if and only if

T  x   0 has only the trivial solution.
Chapter 2: Matrix Algebra

Problems

9. Explain why the formula  A  B   A  B   A  B is not valid for matrices.

2 2

1 2 3   1 3  0 1
10. Given that A    , B  , and C    , compute  B  C  A.
0 1 1  1 2   1 0 

3 2 0 0
4 3 0 0 
11. Find the inverse of B   .
0 0 6 5
 
0 0 7 6

12. Find invertible matrices A and B such that A  B is not invertible.

13. If the product C  AB is invertible (A and B are square), then A itself is invertible.
Find a formula for A1.

14. If A is an invertible matrix, explain why the columns of A1 are linearly
independent.

15. Given that A is an n  n matrix, write down ten equivalent statements to the
statement “A is an invertible matrix.”

Theory

E. Prove the following distributive property for matrix multiplication:

 A  B  C  AC  BC.

F. Prove that  AB   BT AT .
T
Chapter 3: Determinants

Problems

 x y 1
 
16. Compute the determinant of  2 3 1 .
 0 1 1
17. Suppose that A is a square matrix with the property that det A5  0. Explain why A
cannot be invertible.

18. Let A and B be 4  4 matrices with det A  5 and det B  3. Compute the
following:
(a) det  AB  (b) det  5A  (d) det  B A 
T 2
(c) det A1

⎡1 1 3 ⎤
⎢ ⎥
19. Consider the matrix A = ⎢ 2 −2 1 ⎥, find A1.
⎢
⎣0 1 0 ⎥ ⎦

2 3 5
20. Explain why 1 7 2  0 without doing any work.
4 6 10
Chapter 4: Vector Spaces

Problems

21. Determine whether the given set is a vector space. If it is not, list at least one axiom
that does not hold.
(a) The set of diagonal n  n matrices under the usual matrix addition and
scalar multiplication.
(b)   x, y  y  0; x, y real with the usual addition and scalar multiplication of
vectors.
(c) The set of vectors in R 3 of the form  x, x, x  .
(d) The set of differentiable functions defined on  0, 1 with the usual operations of
function addition and scalar multiplication.
1  
(e) The set of matrices of the form   with the matrix operations of addition
 1 
and scalar multiplication. Note:  and  are real numbers.

22. A subspace S of a vector space V is a subset of V having all of the properties of V.

What are the only three properties that need to be shown to prove that S is a subspace
of V?

 8 2 9  2
   
23. Let A   6 4 8  and w   1  . Is w  Col A ? Is w  Nul A ? Justify.
 4 0 4   2 

1 0  3 1

0 1  4   3 
24. Find a basis for the space spanned by the vectors   ,  ,  ,   , and
 3  2 1  8
       
2  3 6 7
2
1
 .
 6 
 
9

  1 3  5 

  0  4 
 2    .
25. Find the dimension of the subspace of R spanned by    ,
4  ,
 5  1  9 
  0   
 2 
 
 2 
26. Given that A is 6  8, what is the smallest possible value for the dimension of the null
space of A?

27. If the null space of an 8  5 matrix A is 2-dimensional, what is the rank of A?

Theory

G. Let T : V  W be a linear transformation. Prove that if  v1 , , v p  is linearly

 
dependent in V, then the set of images T  v1  , , T  v p  is linearly dependent in W.

Chapter 5: Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

Problems

1 1 4 
 
28. Let A   3 2 1 . Find all eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A.
 2 1 1

29. Notice that the eigenvalues of matrix A in question 33 are distinct. As a result, A is
diagonalizable. Clearly go through the steps to diagonalize A. Must a matrix have
distinct eigenvalues to be diagonalizable?

 4  3
30. Given that A    , compute A by first diagonalizing A.
8

 2  1

31. Explain why a zero eigenvalue has significant meaning whereas a zero eigenvector
does not.
Chapter 6: Orthogonality and Least Squares

Problems

 1
 
32. Find a unit vector in the direction of  2   R .
3

 7 
  1   2   5 / 7  
     
33. Consider the set B    2  ,  2  ,  4 / 7   .
  3   2  1/ 7  
     
(a) Show that B is an orthogonal basis for R 3 .
12 
 
(b) Express the vector  6  as a linear combination of the vectors in B.
 6 

 1  1   1

      
34. Let W  span  1 ,  3   and y   4  . Express y as the sum of two vectors, one
 1  2    3 
    
in W and one in W  .

 1   2  1 
   3 , 2 
35. Find an orthonormal basis for R 3 given that   1 ,      is a basis for R 3 .
 1   1  4 
  

0 3  0 3 / 5  3
     5 10 
36. Let A  0 4  , Q   0 4 / 5 , R    , and b   0  .
5 10  1 0  0 5   4 
(a) Verify that A  QR.
(b) What kind of matrix is Q
MTH 210
Review for Final Exam
Partial Solution Key (Problems Only)

1. 1 and 2
 
2.  1  2t , 2  3t , t  t  R
3. h  5
4. yes
5 
5. x   
1 
6. (a) independent
(b) dependent
(c) dependent
(d) dependent
(e) independent
(f) independent (you should prove this)
9 
7.  
1 
8. T is one-to-one but not onto R 3 .
9. AB is often not equal to BA.
 1 6 1
10.  
 2 2 8
 3 2 0 0 
 4 3 0 0 
11. B   
1

 0 0 6 5
 
 0 0 7 6 
1 0   1 0 
12. For example, A    , B .
0 1   0 1
13. A1  BC 1
14. Note that A   A1  . As A1 is invertible, its columns must be linearly
1

independent.
15. (a) The columns of A are linearly independent.
(b) The columns of A span R n .
(c) The columns of A form a basis for R n .
(d) Ax  0 has only the trivial solution.
(e)   0 is not an eigenvalue of A.
(f) A  0.
(g) Nul A   0 .
(h) rank A  n.
(i) Col A  R n .
 (j) T  x   Ax is a one-to-one transformation.
16. 4 x  2 y  2
17. This is because det A5   det A  .
5

18. (a) 15

(b) 3125
(c) 1/5
(d) 75
 1 3 7 
1 1 
19. A   0 0 5 
5
 2 1 4 
20. Row 3 is a multiple of Row 1.
21. (a) yes
(b) no (not closed under scalar multiplication)
(c) yes
(d) yes
(e) no (the zero matrix is not in the set)
22. Let x, y  S , c  R.
(i) Is 0  S ?
(ii) Is x  y  S ?
(iii) Is cx  S ?
23. yes to both
24. A basis can be constructed by the first, second, and fourth vectors alone.
25. 2
26. 2
27. 3
  1 
  
28.   1: eigenspace   4  
 1  
  
  1 
  
  2 : eigenspace   1  
 1  
  
 1  
  
  3 : eigenspace   2  
 1  
  
29. P AP  D  diag  1, 2,3 where the columns of P are the eigenvectors of A.
1

 766 765 
30. A  
8

510 509 

31. If   0, the eigenvectors coincide with the null space of A. If x  0,  can be

 chosen to be any real number.
 1 
 
3 6 
 2 
32.  
3 6 
 7 
3 6 
 
33. (a) Check that u i  u j  0. Since we have an orthogonal set of nonzero vectors, the
set must be linearly independent. Also, any three linearly independent vectors in
R 3 forms a basis.
12  1  2  5 / 7 
 6   3  2   2  2   7  4 / 7  .
(b)        
 6   3   2  1/ 7 
 3 / 2   5 / 2 
   
34.  7 / 2    1/ 2 
 1   2 
  1/ 3   0   2 / 6 
       
35.   1/ 3  , 1/ 2  ,  1/ 6  
     
  1/ 3  1/ 2   1/ 6  
36. (b) orthogonal