MAT 248: Applied Linear Algebra (Assignment:1) 5 September 2023

1. V is an n− dimensional vector space and T : V → V is a linear transforma-

tion. Assume T has identical image and kernal.

(a) Prove that n is even.

(b) Give an example of such linear transformation T .
2. Construct an example of an n × n matrix A ̸= In such that An = In but
A2 , A3 , · · · , An−1 ̸= In .
(Recall elementary matrices of type 2 provide an example for A2 = In . Do
it for n = 3 first! )
3. Compute the dimension of the following subspaces (if they form a subspace)
and find a basis, otherwise explain why the subset does not form a subspace:

(a) V ⊂ Mn×n (R) set of symmetric matrices.

(b) V ⊂ Mn×n (R) set of anti-symmetric matrices.
(c) V ⊂ Mn×n (R) set of matrices satisfying A2 = 0.
(d) All invertible matrices.
(e) For 1 ≤ k ≤ n, Vk ⊂ Mn×n (R) is the set of rank k matrices.
4. Let A and B be n × n matrices with the property that AB = 0. For each of
the following give a proof or counterexample.
(a) Every eigenvector of B is also an eigenvector of A.
(b) At least one eigenvector of B is also an eigenvector of A.
5. L : V → V is a linear transformation on a vector space V . k > 1 is a
positive integer. Assume that ∃z ∈ V such that Lk−1 (z) ̸= 0 but Lk (z) = 0.
Prove that z, L(z), · · · , Lk−1 (z) are linearly independent. Thus, conclude
that k ≤ dim(V ).
d
6. Show that dx : Pn → Pn is a linear transformation. Show that the following
subset B ⊂ Pn given by B = {1, x, x2 , · · · , xn } is a basis for Pn . Find the
d
matrix for dx with respsect to B. We shall call B as standard basis for Pn .
7. (From Quantum mechanics:)

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 (a) Show that the map multiplication by x, X : Pn → Pn+1 is a linear
transformation.
(b) Compute the matrix of X with respect to the standard basis.
(c) We can take the following compositions:
d X
d
dx
→ Pn+1 −→ Pn
◦ X : Pn −
dx
and
d d
X
X◦ : Pn −dx
→ Pn−1 − → Pn
dx
Explain why the composition is well defined.
d d
(d) Compute the matrix of linear transformation for dx ◦ X and X ◦ dx with
respect to the standard basis.
(e) For any polynomial f (x) = a0 + a1 x + · · · + an xn ∈ Pn show algebraically
that
d d
◦ X(f ) − X ◦ (f ) = f
dx dx
(f) Show that the difference of the matrices in part(d) gives you the identity
matrix In .
(g) Earlier we showed that (in one of the previous discussion) there does not
exists matrices A, B such that

AB − BA = In

using trace argument. Why (f ) does not contradict this result?

8. From Homework 5, take V = M2×2 (R). Show that the transposition map
T : V → V given by T (A) = AT is a linear transformation. Compute its
characteristic equation. Determine its eigenvalue and eigenvector.
9. V = C(R) is the vector space of continuous functions on R. Let H1 and H2
are the following subspaces of V .

H1 = Span{1, cos(t), cos2 (t), cos3 (t)}

H2 = Span{1, cos(t), cos(2t), cos(3t)}

(a) Show that H1 = H2 .
(b) Determine the dim(Hi ) by explicitly providing a basis.

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10. Let θ be an angle. Compute the matrix R(θ) that rotates the plane R2 by
the angle θ. Show that R(θ) is orthogonal i.e. R(θ)R(θ)T = I2 . Compute
its eigenvalue and eigenvector. For which value of θ (s) eigenvalues become
real? Provide a geometric argument of the previous result.
11. Suppose M is an n × n upper-triangular matrix. If the diagonal entries of M
are all non-zero, then prove that the column vectors are linearly independent.
Does the conclusion hold if we do not assume that M has non-zero diagonal
entries?
12. Let n be a positive integer. Let T : Rn → R be a non-zero linear transfor-
mation. Prove the followings.
(a) The nullity of T is n − 1.
(b) Let B = {v1 , · · · , vn−1 } be a basis of the nullspace N (T ) of T. Let w be
the n-dimensional vector that is not in N (T ). Then B ′ = {v1 , · · · , vn−1 , w}
is a basis of Rn .
(c) Each vector u ∈ Rn can be expressed as
T (u)
u=v+ w,
T (w)
for some v ∈ N (T ).
13. Let T : R2 → R2 be a linear transformation of the 2-dimensional vector
space R2 (the x − y-plane) to itself which is the reflection across a line
y = mx for some m ∈ R. Then find the matrix representation of the linear
2
transformation   to the standard basis B = {e1 , e2 } of R
  T with respect
1 0
where e1 = and e2 = .
0 1
 
x1
14. Show that T : R3 → R3 defined by T (x) = Ax, where x = x2  , and
x3
 
a 0 0
A = 0 b 0 for a, b, c > 0 transforms the sphere to an ellipsoid.
0 0 c
15. In the space C[0, π] define the vector f, g and h by
f (x) = x, g(x) = sin x, h(x) = cos x for 0 ≤ x ≤ π.
Show that f, g, h are linearly independent.

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16. A sequence of vector spaces and linear maps
.... −→jn−1 Vn−1 −→jn Vn −→jn+1 Vn+1 −→jn+2 Vn+2 −→jn+3 ...
is said to be SHORT EXACT at Vn if ker jn+1 = rang jn . A sequence is exact
if it is exact at each of its constituent vector spaces.
Suppose a sequence of vector spaces and linear maps of the following form
0 −→ U −→j V −→k W −→ 0
is a SHORT EXACT sequence. (Here 0 denotes the trivial 0-dimensional
vector space, and the unlabeled arrows are the obvious linear maps.) Show
that the following statements are true:
(a) The sequence is exact at U iff j is injective.
(b) The sequence is exact at W iff k is surjective.
(c) The following sequence is short exact:
0 −→i U −→j U × V −→k V −→l 0
where j(u) = (u, 0) and k(u, v) = v.
17. Give a proof or counterexample the following. In each case your answers
should be brief.
(a) Suppose that u, v and w are vectors in a vector space V and T : V → W
is a linear map. If u, v and w are linearly dependent, is it true that
T (u), T (v) and T (w) are linearly dependent? Why?
b) If T : R6 → R4 is a linear map, is it possible that the nullspace of T is
one dimensional?
18. Let A : R3 → R2 and B : R2 → R3 ,so BA : R3 → R3 and AB : R2 → R2 .
(a) Show that BA can not be invertible.
(b) Give an example showing that AB might be invertible (in this case it
usually is).
19. Let A : Rn → Rk be a linear map. Show that the following are equivalent
(a) For every y ∈ Rk the equation Ax = y has at most one solution.
(b) A is injective (hence n ≤ k). [injective means one-to-one]
(c) dim ker(A) = 0.

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 (d) The map AT : Rk → Rn is surjective (onto).
(e) The columns of A are linearly independent.
20. Let T : R2 → R2 is the following linear transformation:
   
x x + 2y
T( )=
y 3x − y
with respect to the standard basis B = {e1 , e2 }.
(a) Find the matrix representing T: [T ]B .
       
1 1 3 4
(b) Show that B1 = { , } and B2 = { , } are basis for R2 .
1 0 4 5
(c) Compute [T ]B1 and [T ]B2 .
(d) Find a invertible matrix Q such that [T ]B1 = Q[T ]B2 Q−1 .