B. Sc.

Examination by course unit 2010

MTH6140 Linear Algebra II

Duration: 2 hours

Date and time: 4th June 2010, 1000h–1200h

Apart from this page, you are not permitted to read the contents of this question
paper until instructed to do so by an invigilator.

You may attempt as many questions as you wish and all questions carry equal marks.
Except for the award of a bare pass, only the best 4 questions answered will be counted.

Calculators are NOT permitted in this examination. The unauthorized use of a

calculator constitutes an examination offence.
Complete all rough workings in the answer book and cross through any work which
is not to be assessed.
Candidates should note that the Examination and Assessment Regulations state
that possession of unauthorized materials by any candidate who is under examination
conditions is an assessment offence. Please check your pockets now for any notes that
you may have forgotten that are in your possession. If you have any, then please raise
your hand and give them to an invigilator now.
Exam papers must not be removed from the examination room.
Examiner(s): O.M.Jenkinson

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 Page 2 MTH6140 (2010)

Question 1 Let A and B be matrices of the same size over a field K.

(a) [3 marks] What are the 3 types of elementary row operation which may be applied to
A?

(b) [3 marks] What does it mean to say that A and B are equivalent?

(c) [4 marks] What is meant by the canonical form for equivalence for A, and how is the
rank of A defined?

(d) [7 marks] Let  

6 3
A=
1 6
be a matrix over the field K = F11 (the field of integers mod 11). What is the rank of
A, and what is its canonical form for equivalence? Briefly justify your answer.

(e) [8 marks] How many 2 × 2 matrices A are there over K = F2 (the field of integers
mod 2)?
List all of these matrices A whose rank is equal to 1.
List all of these matrices A whose rank is equal to 1 and whose square A2 also has
rank equal to 1.

Question 2 Let V and W be finite-dimensional vector spaces over a field K.

(a) [3 marks] What does it mean to say that a map T : V → W is linear?

(b) [4 marks] If T : V → W is linear, how are its kernel ker(T ), its nullity nul(T ), its
image Im(T ), and its rank rank(T ) defined?

(c) [3 marks] State the Rank-Nullity Theorem.

(d) [5 marks] Prove that the map S : C3 → C defined by

 
x1
S   x2  = x1 + x2 − 5x3
x3

is linear.

(e) [3 marks] Does there exist a linear map T : R4 → R2 such that rank(T )2 = nul(T )?
Justify your answer.

(f) [3 marks] Does there exist a linear map T : R6 → R2 such that rank(T )2 = nul(T )?
Justify your answer.

(g) [4 marks] Give an example of maps S : R2 → R2 and T : R2 → R2 which are not

themselves linear, but whose sum S + T is linear.

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 MTH6140 (2010) Page 3

Question 3 Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space over R.

(a) [4 marks] What is meant by a quadratic form (on V )?

(b) [2 marks] What does it mean for two real symmetric matrices to be congruent?

(c) [3 marks] What does Sylvester’s Law of Inertia assert about real symmetric matrices?

(d) [4 marks] Which real symmetric matrix A represents the real quadratic form

Q(x, y, z) = 4x2 + 14y2 + 5z2 + 16xy − 8xz − 20yz ?

(e) [7 marks] Find a diagonal matrix B which is congruent to the matrix A from part (d).

(f) [5 marks] Determine the set of real values

 α for which the symmetric real matrix
α α2
 
1 0
A= is congruent to the matrix .
α2 α3 0 0

Question 4 Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space over a field K.

(a) [3 marks] If v1 , . . . , vn is a basis for V , how is the dual basis for its dual space V ∗
defined?

(b) [8 marks] Suppose that the vectors v1 , v2 , v3 form a basis for V = R3 , and that the
dual basis for V ∗ is denoted by f1 , f2 , f3 .

Suppose a second basis w1 , w2 , w3 for V is given by

w1 = v1 + 2v2 , w2 = 2v2 − 4v3 , w3 = 8v3 .

If g1 , g2 , g3 denotes the basis of V ∗ which is dual to w1 , w2 , w3 , then express each of

g1 , g2 , g3 as a linear combination of f1 , f2 , and f3 .

(c) [4 marks] For a linear map T : V → V , how are its characteristic polynomial cT and
minimal polynomial mT defined?

(d) [2 marks] What does the Cayley–Hamilton theorem assert about a linear map T : V →
V?

(e) [8 marks] Determine the characteristic and minimal polynomials of the real matrix
 
0 −4 −6
A = 1 4 3 ,
0 0 2

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Question 5 Let V be a vector space over a field K.

(a) [3 marks] What does it mean to say that a non-empty subset U of V is a subspace of
V?

(b) [3 marks] If U1 and U2 are subspaces of V , how is U1 +U2 defined?

(c) [3 marks] What does it mean to say that the vectors v1 , . . . , vn ∈ V are spanning?

(d) [4 marks] Is the set

  

 x1 

x
  
2 4
 ∈ C : 2x1 + 5x2 − 3x3 + 7x4 = 2
U= 
x 
 3

 

x3


a subspace of C4 ? Prove your assertion.

(e) [4 marks] Give an example of a spanning set for R2 which is not a basis.
   
1 0
(f) [8 marks] Let i denote the square root of −1. Given bases B = , and
    0 1
i 1
B0 = , for C2 , write down the transition matrix PB,B0 from B to B0 .
1 2−i
 
2
Hence, or otherwise, determine the coordinate representation of v = with
4 − 3i
respect to the basis B0 .

Question 6 Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space over R.

(a) [4 marks] What is meant by an inner product on V ?

(b) [3 marks] Given an inner product on V , what does it mean to say that a basis v1 , . . . , vn
of V is orthonormal?

(c) [4 marks] If T : V → V is a linear map, what does it mean to say that λ ∈ R is an

eigenvalue of T ? What does it mean to say that v ∈ V is an eigenvector of T ?

(d) [6 marks] Determine the eigenvalues of the map T : R3 → R3 defined by

   
x x−y−z
T  y  =  −x + y + z  .
z −x + y + z

(e) [8 marks] Suppose that R3 is equipped with the standard inner product. Find an
orthonormal basis of R3 consisting of eigenvectors of the map T from (d) above.

End of Paper

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