Latest Notes 2024

Systems of Equations and Matrices Introduction We will start this chapter off by looking at the
application of matrices that almost every book on Linear Algebra starts off with, solving systems of
linear equations. Looking at systems of equations will allow us to start getting used to the notation
and some of the basic manipulations of matrices that we’ll be using often throughout these notes.
Once we’ve looked at solving systems of linear equations we’ll move into the basic arithmetic of
matrices and basic matrix properties. We’ll also take a look at a couple of other ideas about matrices
that have some nice applications to the solution to systems of equations. One word of warning
about this chapter, and in fact about this complete set of notes for that matter, we’ll start out in the
first section or to doing a lot of the details in the problems, but towards the end of this chapter and
into the remaining chapters we will leave many of the details to you to check. We start off by doing
lots of details to make sure you are comfortable working with matrices and the various operations
involving them. However, we will eventually assume that you’ve become comfortable with the
details and can check them on your own. At that point we will quit showing many of the details.
Here is a listing of the topics in this chapter. Systems of Equations – In this section we’ll introduce
most of the basic topics that we’ll need in order to solve systems of equations including augmented
matrices and row operations. Solving Systems of Equations – Here we will look at the Gaussian
Elimination and Gauss-Jordan Method of solving systems of equations. Matrices – We will introduce
many of the basic ideas and properties involved in the study of matrices. Matrix Arithmetic &
Operations – In this section we’ll take a look at matrix addition, subtraction and multiplication. We’ll
also take a quick look at the transpose and trace of a matrix. Properties of Matrix Arithmetic – We
will take a more in depth look at many of the properties of matrix arithmetic and the transpose.
Linear Algebra © 2005 Paul Dawkins 3 http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/terms.asp Inverse Matrices
and Elementary Matrices – Here we’ll define the inverse and take a look at some of its properties.

We’ll also introduce the idea of Elementary Matrices. Finding Inverse Matrices – In this section we’ll
develop a method for finding inverse matrices. Special Matrices – We will introduce Diagonal,
Triangular and Symmetric matrices in this section. LU-Decompositions – In this section we’ll
introduce the LU-Decomposition a way of “factoring” certain kinds of matrices. Systems Revisited –
Here we will revisit solving systems of equations. We will take a look at how inverse matrices and LU-
Decompositions can help with the solution process. We’ll also take a look at a couple of other ideas
in the solution of systems of equations. Systems of Equations Let’s start off this section with the
definition of a linear equation. Here are a couple of examples of linear equations. 1 2 5 6 8 10 3 7 1 9
xy z x x − + = − =− In the second equation note the use of the subscripts on the variables. This is a
common notational device that will be used fairly extensively here. It is especially useful when we
get into the general case(s) and we won’t know how many variables (often called unknowns) there
are in the equation. So, just what makes these two equations linear? There are several main points
to notice. First, the unknowns only appear to the first power and there aren’t any unknowns in the
denominator of a fraction. Also notice that there are no products and/or quotients of unknowns. All
of these ideas are required in order for an equation to be a linear equation. Unknowns only occur in
numerators, they are only to the first power and there are no products or quotients of unknowns.
The most general linear equation is, 11 2 2 n n ax ax ax b + + = " (1) where there are n unknowns, 1
2 ,,, n x x x … , and 1 2 ,,,, n aa ab … are all known numbers. Next we need to take a look at the
solution set of a single linear equation. A solution set (or often just solution) for (1) is a set of
numbers 1 2 ,, , n tt t … so that if we set 1 1 x = t , 2 2 x = t , … , n n x = t then (1) will be satisfied. By
satisfied we mean that if we plug these numbers into the left side of (1) and do the arithmetic we
will get b as an answer. Linear Algebra © 2005 Paul Dawkins 4
http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/terms.asp The first thing to notice about the solution set to a single
linear equation that contains at least two variables with non-zero coefficents is that we will have an
infinite number of solutions. We will also see that while there are infinitely many possible solutions
they are all related to each other in some way. Note that if there is one or less variables with non-
zero coefficients then there will be a single solution or no solutions depending upon the value of b.
Let’s find the solution set’s for the two linear equations given at the start of this section. Example 1
Find the solution set for each of the following linear equations. (a) 1 2 5 7 1 9 x x − =− (b) 6 8 10 3 x −
+ = y z Solution (b) The first thing that we’ll do here is solve the equation for one of the two
unknowns. It doesn’t matter which one we solve for, but we’ll usually try to pick the one that will
mean the least amount (or at least simpler) work. In this case it will probably be slightly easier to
solve for 1 x so let’s do that. 1 2 1 2 1 2 5 7 1 9 5 7 1 9 5 1 63 7 x x x x x x − =− = − = − Now, what this
tells us is that if we have a value for 2 x then we can determine a corresponding value for 1 x . Since
we have a single linear equation there is nothing to restrict our choice of 2 x and so we we’ll let 2 x
be any number. We will usually write this as 2 x = t , where t is any number. Note that there is
nothing special about the t, this is just the letter that I usually use in these cases. Others often use s
for this letter and, of course, you could choose it to be just about anything as long as it’s not a letter
representing one of the unknowns in the equation (x in this case). Once we’ve “chosen” 2 x we’ll
write the general solution set as follows, 1 2 5 1 63 7 x = t xt − = So, just what does this tell us as far
as actual number solutions go? We’ll choose any value of t and plug in to get a pair of numbers 1 x
and 2 x that will satisfy the equation. For instance picking a couple of values of t completely at
random gives,