1.

2 The Geometry of Linear Equations

Chapter 1
Matrices and Gaussian Elimination

1.2 The Geometry of Linear Equations

1. For the equations x + y = 4, 2x − 2y = 4, draw the row picture (two intersecting

lines) and the column picture (combination of two columns equal to the column
vector (4, 4) on the right side).
3. (Recommended) Describe the intersection of the three planes u + v + w + z = 6 and
u + w + z = 4 and u + w = 2 (all in four-dimensional space). Is it a line or a point or
an empty set? What is the intersection if the fourth plane u = −1 is included? Find
a fourth equation that leaves us with no solution.
4. Sketch these three lines and decide if the equations are solvable:

x + 2y = 2
3 by 2 system x − y = 2
y = 1.
What happens if all right-hand sides are zero? Is there any nonzero choice of right-
hand sides that allows the three lines to intersect at the same point?

8. Explain why the system

u + v + w = 2
u + 2v + 3w = 1
v + 2w = 0

is singular by finding a combination of the three equations that adds up to 0 = 1.

What value should replace the last zero on the right side to allow the equations to
have solutions—and what is one of the solutions?

9. The column picture for the previous exercise (singular system) is

     
1 1 1
     
u 1 + v 2 + w 3 = b.
0 1 2

Show that the three columns on the left lie in the same plane by expressing the third
column as a combination of the first two. What are all the solutions (u, v, w) if b is
the zero vector (0, 0, 0)?
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1.2 The Geometry of Linear Equations

10. (Recommended) Under what condition on y1 , y2 , y3 do the points (0, y1 ), (1, y2 ),

(2, y3 ) lie on a straight line?

11. These equations are certain to have the solution x = y = 0. For which values of a is
there a whole line of solutions?
ax + 2y = 0
2x + ay = 0

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1.3 An Example of Gaussian Elimination

1.3 An Example of Gaussian Elimination

Problems 1–9 are about elimination on 2 by 2 systems.

4. What multiple ` of equation 1 should be subtracted from equation 2?

ax + by = f
cx + dy = g.

The first pivot is a (assumed nonzero). Elimination produces what formula for the
second pivot? What is y? The second pivot is missing when ad = bc.

5. Choose a right-hand side which gives no solution and another right-hand side which
gives infinitely many solutions. What are two of those solutions?

3x + 2y = 10
6x + 4y = .

7. For which numbers a does elimination break down (a) permanently, and (b) tem-
porarily?
ax + 3y = −3
4x + 6y = 6.
Solve for x and y after fixing the second breakdown by a row exchange.
.
Problems 10–19 study elimination on 3 by 3 systems (and possible failure).

10. Reduce this system to upper triangular form by two row operations:
2x + 3y + z = 8
4x + 7y + 5z = 20
− 2y + 2z = 0.
Circle the pivots. Solve by back-substitution for z, y, x.

13. Which number b leads later to a row exchange? Which b leads to a missing pivot?
In that singular case find a nonzero solution x, y, z.
x + by = 0
x − 2y − z = 0
y + z = 0.

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1.3 An Example of Gaussian Elimination

Problems 20–22 move up to 4 by 4 and n by n.

23. For the system

u + v + w = 2
u + 3v + 3w = 0
u + 3v + 5w = 2,
what is the triangular system after forward elimination, and what is the solution?

24. Solve the system and find the pivots when

2u − v = 0
−u + 2v − w = 0
− v + 2w − z = 0
− w + 2z = 5.
You may carry the right-hand side as a fifth column (and omit writing u, v, w, z until
the solution at the end).

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1.4 Matrix Notation and Matrix Multiplication

1.4 Matrix Notation and Matrix Multiplication

11. The first row of AB is a linear combination of all the rows of B. What are the coeffi-
cients in this combination, and what is the first row of AB, if
 
" # 1 1
2 1 4  
A= and B = 0 1?
0 −1 1
1 0

14. Describe the rows of EA and the columns of AE if

" #
1 7
E= .
0 1

15. Suppose A commutes with every 2 by 2 matrix (AB = BA), and in particular
" # " # " #
a b 1 0 0 1
A= commutes with B1 = and B2 = .
c d 0 0 0 0

Show that a = d and b = c = 0. If AB = BA for all matrices B, then A is a multiple

of the identity.
16. Let x be the column vector (1, 0, . . . , 0). Show that the rule (AB)x = A(Bx) forces the
first column of AB to equal A times the first column of B.

20. The matrix that rotates the x-y plane by an angle θ is

" #
cos θ − sin θ
A(θ ) = .
sin θ cos θ

Verify that A(θ1 )A(θ2 ) = A(θ1 + θ2 ) from the identities for cos(θ1 + θ2 ) and sin(θ1 +
θ2 ). What is A(θ ) times A(−θ )?

Problems 22–31 are about elimination matrices.

22. Write down the 3 by 3 matrices that produce these elimination steps:
(a) E21 subtracts 5 times row 1 from row 2.
(b) E32 subtracts −7 times row 2 from row 3.
(c) P exchanges rows 1 and 2, then rows 2 and 3.

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1.4 Matrix Notation and Matrix Multiplication

31. This 4 by 4 matrix needs which elimination matrices E21 and E32 and E43 ?
 
2 −1 0 0
−1 2 −1 0 
 
A= .
 0 −1 2 −1
0 0 −1 2

39. A is 3 by 5, B is 5 by 3, C is 5 by 1, and D is 3 by 1. All entries are 1. Which of these

matrix operations are allowed, and what are the results?

BA AB ABD DBA A(B +C).

Problems 32–44 are about creating and multiplying matrices

40. What rows or columns or matrices do you multiply to find

(a) the third column of AB?
(b) the first row of AB?
(c) the entry in row 3, column 4 of AB?
(d) the entry in row 1, column 1 of CDE?

Problems 45–49 use column-row multiplication and block multiplication.

45. Multiply AB using columns times rows:

   
1 0 " # 1 h i
  3 3 0  
AB = 2 4 = 2 3 3 0 + = .
1 2 1
2 1 2

46. Block multiplication separates matrices into blocks (submatrices). If their shapes
make block multiplication possible, then it is allowed. Replace these x’s by numbers
and confirm that block multiplication succeeds.
  
" # x x x x x x
h i C h i
  
A B = AC + BD and  x x x   x x x  .
D
x x x x x x

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1.5 Triangular Factors and Row Exchanges

1.5 Triangular Factors and Row Exchanges

5. Factor A into LU, and write down the upper triangular system Ux = c which appears
after elimination, for     
2 3 3 u 2
    
Ax = 0 5 7  v  = 2 .
6 9 8 w 5

13. Solve by elimination, exchanging rows when necessary:

u + 4v + 2w = −2 v + w = 0
−2u − 8v + 3w = 32 and u + v = 0
v + w = 1 u + v + w = 1.
Which permutation matrices are required?

15. Find the PA = LDU factorizations (and check them) for

   
0 1 1 1 2 1
   
A = 1 0 1 and A = 2 4 2 .
2 3 4 1 1 1

17. The less familiar form A = LPU exchanges rows only at the end:
      
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1
      
A = 1 1 3 → L−1 A = 0 0 2 = PU = 0 0 1 0 3 6 .
2 5 8 0 3 6 0 1 0 0 0 2
What is L is this case? Comparing with PA = LU in Box 1J, the multipliers now stay
in place (`21 is 1 and `31 is 2 when A = LPU).

Problems 20–31 compute the factorization A = LU (and also A = LDU).

24. What three elimination matrices E21 , E31 , E32 put A into upper triangular form
−1 −1 −1
E32 E31 E21 A = U? Multiply by E32 , E31 and E21 to factor A into LU where L =
−1 −1 −1
E21 E31 E32 . Find L and U:  
1 0 1
 
A = 2 2 2 .
3 4 5

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1.6 Inverses and Transposes

1.6 Inverses and Transposes

4. (a) If A is invertible and AB = AC, prove quickly that B = C.

(b) If A = [ 10 00 ], find an example with AB = AC but B 6= C.
5. If the inverse of A2 is B, show that the inverse of A is AB. (Thus A is invertible
whenever A2 is invertible.)
6. Use the Gauss-Jordan method to invert
     
1 0 0 2 −1 0 0 0 1
     
A1 = 1 1 1 , A2 = −1 2 −1 , A3 = 0 1 1 .
0 0 1 0 −1 2 1 1 1

9. Suppose elimination fails because there is no pivot in column 3:

 
2 1 4 6
0 3 8 5
 
Missing pivot A= .
0 0 0 7
0 0 0 9
Show that A cannot be invertible. The third row of A−1 , multiplying A, should give
the third row [0 0 1 0] of A−1 A = I. Why is this impossible?
.
14. If B is square, show that A = B + BT is always symmetric and K = B − BT is always
skew-symmetric—which means that K T = −K. Find these matrices A and K when
B = [ 11 31 ], and write B as the sum of a symmetric matrix and a skew-symmetric
matrix.

15. (a) How many entries can be chosen independently in a symmetric matrix of order
n?
(b) How many entries can be chosen independently in a skew-symmetric matrix
(K T = −K) of order n? The diagonal of K is zero!

24. Show that [ 13 26 ] has no inverse by trying to solve for the column (x, y):
" #" # " # " #" # " #
1 2 x t 1 0 1 2 x 1
= must include = .
3 6 y z 0 1 3 6 y 0

Problems 35–39 are about the Gauss-Jordan method for calculating A−1

38. Invert these matrices A by the Gauss-Jordan method starting with [A I]:
   
1 0 0 1 1 1
   
A = 2 1 3 and A = 1 2 2 .
0 0 1 1 2 3
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