Maths-2 | Live Session | Week-5

Karthik Thiagarajan

1. 2
2. 3
3. 4
4. 5
5. 6
6. 7
7. 8
8. 9
9. 10
10. 11
11. 12
12. 13
13. 14
14. 15
1.
1 2 3

Find the nullity of the matrix 4 5 6 .

2 4 6

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 0 - 1

4 5 6 → 4 5 6 → 0 1 2 → 0 1 2
2 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0

Rank of the matrix is and its nullity is 1.

A
2

Check: Compute the nullspace of

1 0 - 1

A = 0 1 2

0 0 0

• Dependent variables
x x
– 1, 2
• Independent variable
– x 3

x 1 = 1, x - x
2 = 2, 3 = 1 ⟹ (1, - 2, 1)

B - = {(1, 2, 1)}, null space span B

= ( t-tt t R
) = {( , 2 , ) | ∈ }

Check:

t t- t t
-t t- t t
1 2 3 4 +3 0

= =

t t- t t
4 5 6 2 4 10 +6 0

2 4 6 2 8 +6 0
2.

Find out the value of a for which the matrix 1

3 a
2
has nullity 1.

a-
1 2

a a
1 2 1 2
→ → 6
3 1 /3 0
3

Since the nullity is 1, the rank is 2 - 1 = 1. If a = 6 the last row will

be zero as desired.
3.
Consider the following system of linear equations:

x x x
x x
1 + 2 + 4 = 0

+ = 0

x -x x
2 3

1 3
+ 4
= 0

Compute the nullspace of the coefficient matrix for the above system.

A
1 1 0 1

-
0 1 1 0

1 0 1 1

1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 - 1 1

- - -
0 1 1 0 → 0 1 1 0 → 0 1 1 0 → 0 1 1 0

1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1 0 - 1 1

0 1 1 0

0 0 0 0

Dependent variables
x x
• 1, 2
Independent variables
• x x 3, 4

x x - x x -
x - x x x -
1 = 1, 2 = 1, 3 = 1, 4 = 0 ⟹ (1, 1, 1, 0)

1 = 1, 2 = 0, 3 = 0, 4 = 1 ⟹ ( 1, 0, 0, 1)

Check:

-
1
1 1 0 1 0
1

-
0 1 1 0 = 0
1
1 0 1 1 0
0

1 1 0 1
- 1
0
0
=

-
0 1 1 0 0
0
1 0 1 1 0
1

B = {(1, - 1, 1, 0), ( - 1, 0, 0, 1)}

null space A t - t - t t R
t -t -t t t t t R
( ) = { 1 (1, 1, 1, 0) + 2( 1, 0, 0, 1) | 1, 2 ∈ }

= {( 1 2
, 1
, 1
, 2
| 1
, 2
∈ }
4.
Compute the nullspace of the coefficient matrix for the following system:

x x x
x x
3 1 +2 2 + 3 = 0

1
+ 3
= 0

HW
5.
Comment on the nullity of an arbitrary diagonal matrix of size n n.
×

d
D
1

dn
= ⋱

Rank of D is the number of non-zero rows. But since Dis diagonal, the
number or non-zero rows is the equal the number of non-zero diagonal
entries. The nullity is the number of zero entries in the diagonal.
6.
Let the nullity of the matrix A 3×5
be 2. Finds its rank.

3
7.
Find the relationship between the determinant of a square matrix and its
nullity.

If a A is a square matrix of size n n:

×

Ax = 0

If A is invertible (determinant is non-zero), then how many solutions

does Ax have? It has exactly one solution, namely . So the nullspace
of A is . This is nothing but span
= 0 0

{0} . Therefore its dimension

{ } = {0}

(nullity) is zero.

• A square matrix has nullity zero if and only if it is invertible.

• A square matrix that is not invertible has a nullity of at least 1.
8.
Let A be a square matrix such that Ax has a unique solution. What is
the nullity of A?
= 0

0
9.
Suppose A R . What is the minimum number of elements in a linearly
2×4

independent subset of the nullspace of A that also spans the set of

∈

solutions of Ax ?= 0

• The maximum rank of A is .

• nullity A - rank A -
2

( ) = 4 ( ) ⩾ 4 2 = 2
10.
If T is a linear transformation from V to W, what is the value of T (0)?

T (0 + 0) = T (0) + T T
(0) ⟹ 2 (0) = 0 ⟹ T (0) = 0

Effect of a linear transformation on basis vectors:

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5

-1
11.
Which of the following are linear transformations?
• T : R 2
→ R,Txy
3
( , ) = ( xx yy
, + , + 1)

• T : R 2
→ R,Txy
2
( , ) = ( xy x y
, + )

• T : R 2
→ R,Txy
3
( , ) = ( x yy x y
+ , ,2 + + 1)

• T R 2
R,Txy
3
x yy x y
xy
: → ( , ) = ( + , ,2 + )

• T : R 2
→ R,Txy
2
( , ) = ,
2 2

• T R R,Txy xx yy
2 3

– T
: → ( , ) = ( , + , + 1)

(0, 0) = (0, 0, 1)

– not a linear transformation

• T R R , T x y xy x y
2 2

– T
: → ( , ) = ( , + )

– T T
(0, 0) = (0, 0)

– T T
((1, 0) + (0, 1)) = (1, 1) = (1, 2)

(1, 0) + (0, 1) = (0, 1) + (0, 1) = (0, 2)

– not a linear transformation

12.
T is a linear transformation from V to W such that V is the only
vector that T maps to W. Is T one-one?
0 ∈

0 ∈

We already know that T maps to . There is no v

0 such that T v
0 ≠ 0 ( ) = 0.

Let v v be mapped to the same element:

1
, 2

Tv Tv
T v -T v v -v v v
( 1) = ( 2)

( ) ( ) = 0 ⟹ = 0 ⟹ =

T v -v
1 2 1 2 1 2

( 1 2
) = 0

Therefore T is one-one.

Remark: T is one-one if and only if T x x . ( ) = 0 ⟹ = 0

13.
TR R
:
2
→
2
Txy
is given by ( , ) = ( x , 0). Comment on the nature of T.
• Not one-one, T T (0, 1) = (0, 2) = (0, 0)

• Not onto, (1, 1) is not in the range

T (2, 1) = (2, 0)

Txy ( , ) = ( x , 0) ≠ (4, 2)

This T projects the XY plane to the X-axis.

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5

-1
14.
TR R
:
2
→
2
is given by Txy
( , ) = ( x y x- y . Is T bijective?
+ , )

Injectivie

Txy ( , ) = 0 ⟹ x y x- y
+ = = 0 ⟹ x y = = 0

Surjective

Txy
( , ab
) = ( , ) ⟹
x y a
x- y b
+ =

=
⟹ x a b y a-b
=
+

2
, =
2

T a b a-b
+

2
,
2
= ( ,ab )