Linear Systems continued Math 1850U

Introduction to Linear Systems (1.1) ctd.

Recall: Last day, we introduced Gaussian and Gauss-Jordan Elimination for
row-reducing a matrix. Let’s get some more practice at this.

Example: Let’s do some more examples of the end of the algorithm. Sup-
pose we have the following augmented matrices corresponding to a linear
system:
 
1 0 2
(a)  0 1 7 
0 0 0

 
1 2 1 −1 1
 0 0 0 0 2 
(b) 
 0

1 2 1 5 
3 1 −1 2 1

 
1 0 2 0 0 1
(c)  0 0 0 1 1 0 
0 0 0 0 0 0

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Definition: A system of linear equations is said to be homogeneous if the
constant terms are all zero. That is, the bi = 0 for all i between 1 and m.

a11 x1 + a12 x2 + · · · + a1n xn = 0

a21 x1 + a22 x2 + · · · + a2n xn = 0
.. ..
. .
am1 x1 + am2 x2 + · · · + amn xn = 0

Some Properties of Homogeneous Systems:

• Every homogeneous system is consistent, because it has at least the

solution x1 = 0, x2 = 0, . . . , xn = 0. This is called the trivial solution.
If there are other solutions as well, they’re called non-trivial.

• Either there is only the trivial solution, or there are infinitely many
solutions.

• A homogeneous system of equations with more unknowns than equa-

tions has infinitely many solutions.

Example: This system will have infinitely many solutions (including, of

course, the trivial one).

x1 + 2x2 − x3 = 0
x1 + 5x2 − 7x3 = 0

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Example: Which of the following statements are true?

(a) A system with more unknowns than equations must have infinitely many
solutions.

(b) It is impossible for a homogeneous system to be inconsistent.

(c) A homogeneous system with 3 equations and 5 unknowns must have

infinitely many solutions.

(d) A system with more equations than unknowns must be inconsistent.

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Example: What conditions must b1 , b2 and b3 satisfy in order for the fol-
lowing system of equations to be consistent?

x 1 + x 2 + x 3 = b1
−x1 − 2x3 = b2
x 2 − x 3 = b3

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Example: Determine the values of k for which the following system of equa-
tions has:
(i) no solutions;
(ii) exactly one solution;
(iii) infinitely many solutions.

2x + k 2 y = k + 4
x + ky = 3

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Matrices and Matrix Operations (1.3)
Recall: When we started the course, we introduced matrices. Now let’s better
understand how to work with them.

Definition: A matrix is a rectangular array of numbers. The numbers

in the array are called the entries. Matrices will usually be denoted with
capital letters.

Definition: The size of a matrix is described in terms of the number of

rows (horizontal) and columns (vertical) it has. An m × n matrix has m rows
and n columns.

Example: Find the size of the following matrices.

1
 
2 0 −1 − √ 2
 
3 1 −2
A = 3 3 2 2 B=
0 11
1 0 1 −1

Definition: A matrix with only one column is called a column vector (or
column matrix), and a matrix with only one row is called a row vector (or
row matrix).

Notation: (A)ij and aij will denote the entry of the matrix A that is in the ith
row and j th column.
1
 
2 0 −1 −
√ 2
A= 3 3 32 2
1 0 1 −1

Definition: A square matrix is a matrix that has the same number of

rows as columns. The order of a square matrix is the number of rows and
columns. The entries a11 , a22 , . . . , ann form the main diagonal of the square
matrix A.

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Example:  
4 −1 0
5 7 8
8 2 1

Definition: Two matrices are defined to be equal if they have the same size
and all their corresponding entries are equal.

Definition: The sum A+B of two m×n matrices is an m×n matrix obtained
by adding each enrty of A to the corresponding entry of B. Similarly, the
difference A − B is found by subtracting the corresponding entries.

Caution: Matrices of different sizes can NOT be added or sub-

tracted.

Example: Find A + B and A + C.

     
2 0 3 5 2 5 0
A= B= C=
−1 3 2 −1 3 −5 0

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 Definition: If A is any matrix and c is any scalar (some number), then the
scalar product cA is the matrix obtained by multiplying each entry of A
by c. The matrix cA is said to be a scalar multiple of A.

 
2 −1 0
Example: Find cA given c = 3 and A = .
7 3 −2

Definition: If A1 , A2 , . . . , An are matrices of the same size, and c1 , c2 , . . . , cn

are scalars, then the expression

c1 A1 + c2 A2 + · · · + cn An

is called a linear combination of A1 , A2 , . . . , An with coefficients c1 , c2 , . . . , cn .

Exercise: Find the linear combination c1 A1 + c2 A2 − c3 A3 given that c1 = 3,

c2 = −5, c3 = 2, and
     
2 0 −1 3 2 1 1 1 −2
A1 = , A2 = , A1 = .
0 6 2 1 4 2 3 5 −2
 
−11 −12 −4
Answer:
−11 −12 0

As for matrix multiplication, that’s a bit more tricky. Before we get to that, let’s
learn a few more definitions.

Definition: If A is an m × n matrix, then the transpose of A, denoted AT ,

is defined to be the n × m matrix that results from interchanging the rows
and columns of A, i.e.
(AT )ij = (A)ji .

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Example: Find the transpose of the matrix below.
 
2 0 −1 3
A=
1 6 2 7

Definition: If A is a square matrix of order n, then the trace of A, denoted

tr(A), is defined to be the sum of the entries in the main diagonal of A. The
trace is undefined if A is not a square matrix.

tr(A) = a11 + a22 + · · · + ann .

Example: Find the trace of the matrix

 
9 1 0 2
−3 3 5 1
A=  2 −2

0 8
0 4 1 7