Section Check In – 4.
03 Matrices
Questions
For questions involving calculations with purely numerical matrices, try the question by
hand first, then check with your calculator.
1. Let
Calculate where possible:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
2. Find the matrix such that .
3. Solve using matrix methods, giving your answer in terms of and .
What is the condition on and for there to be a solution?
4. Find the inverse of
in terms of . What condition is on to ensure that the inverse exists?
5. You are given that the matrix maps the points and .
Find the matrix .
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6. Let
and
where is a constant.
(i) Find in terms of .
(ii) Given that , where is a constant, find and .
(iii) Write down .
7. A transformation is represented by the matrix
By considering what happens to points on the line under this transformation, find the
value(s) of such that the line is an invariant line.
8.* It is given that is non-singular.
(i) Find the set of possible values of .
(ii) Find the inverse of .
(iii) Solve the equations
in terms of , assuming that lies in the set found in part (i).
9. Let and .
(i) By considering what happens to the unit square with vertices
describe the transformation represented by the matrix .
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(ii) Similarly describe the transformation represented by the matrix .
(iii) Matrix is defined so that . Find .
10.* Solve the system of equations and interpret your answers geometrically.
Extension
(i) The matrix for a general rotation is given by .
Prove that .
How could you use this result to prove De Moivre’s theorem?
HINT: Use addition formulae for trigonometry.
(ii) Let be the matrix of co-factors of a non-singular matrix , .
Prove that .
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Worked solutions
1. (i)
(ii)
(iii)
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(iv)
2. We need to calculate the inverse of
which is
and hence the matrix can be calculated by
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3. First it is written in matrix form
The determinant of the matrix on the LHS is calculated
and the solution can then be calculated as
Therefore the condition for there to be a solution,
and hence
4. First the determinant is calculated to see if the matrix is singular.
The matrix is non-singular if . First, we have to calculate the matrix of co-factors:
The transpose is
and hence the inverse is
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.
5. Let
Therefore, we have
and
These become a set of 4 equations:
Solving the first and third equation gives
and the second and fourth
and hence
6. (i) The product is written as
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(ii) For the product to be equal to , we have
and
which means that
(iii) The inverse of is therefore
or
7. The line can be written as
Therefore, in the primed coordinates
For the points on to lie on the line , we must have
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As a check, for
as required.
For :
as required.
8. (i) The determinant is calculated
Solving for :
so for A to be non-singular
(ii) The matrix of co-factors is
The transpose is
and hence dividing by the determinant gives
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(iii) Hence by matrix multiplication the solution is
and the solution is , , .
9. (i) The points get mapped as
This a shear of magnitude 1 in the x direction
(ii) Like before
and hence
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This a rotation about the origin; angle anticlockwise.
(iii)
Therefore, to find we post-multiply by
There are many ways to find the inverse of . The simplest is using the fact that it
represents a rotation of radians anticlockwise. Therefore, the inverse is just a
rotation of radians clockwise. Hence
10. The equations are first put in matrix form
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The determinant is calculated
The matrix is singular and matrix methods (in this course at least) will not work here.
Each equation represents a plane in the xyz space. The normals for each plane are
None of these are parallel, hence the solution set consists of either a sheaf of planes or a
prism of planes – either infinite solutions or no solutions.
To proceed, first we eliminate from the first two equations to get .
Next, we note that eliminating from the second two equations also gives .
So the equations are consistent and there are infinitely many solutions (for example ),
so the solution set is a sheaf of planes.
(Note that just finding the point above would be enough to prove that it is a sheaf; the
existence of any solution is enough once the matrix has been shown to be singular.)
Extension
(i) We have to calculate
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which is
which upon using the trigonometrical identities becomes
as required.
To prove De Moivre’s theorem we note that from above
Now we interpret a complex number as a matrix in the form
then this is almost a proof for De Moivre’s theorem as complex multiplication is represented
by rotation in the Argand plane.
(ii) From the definition of the matrix of cofactors we have
Now taking the determinant of both sides
Now the RHS is the determinant of a diagonal matrix which is just the product of the diagonal
entries. Therefore
and hence
as required.
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