T HE U NIVERSITY OF S YDNEY

P URE M ATHEMATICS

Linear Mathematics Intensive January Session 2024

Tutorial 1
Tutorial exercises

  
3 0 4 5
1. a) Calculate the matrix product  1 1 2   −2.
−1 3 5 4
b) Hence find all solutions to the system of linear equations:

3x1 + 4x3 = 31
x1 + x2 + 2x3 = 11
−x1 + 3x2 + 5x3 = 9

2. Use set notation to describe all the vectors in R2 that correspond to the points on the line y = x
in two dimensional space.
n x  o
3
3. Give a geometric interpretation of y
z
∈ R | x = y .
n o 
x
4. a) Explain why the set A = | x ∈ R is not a subspace of R2 .
x2
n    o
1 1
b) Explain why the set B = 0 +t 1 | t ∈ R is not a subspace of R3 .
0 0
n  o
x
5. Prove that the set S = y ∈ R2 | y = 4x is a subspace of R2 .
 1

6. Determine whether or not the vector −2 can be written as a linear combination of the vectors
      1
1 2 3
4 , 5 , 6 .
7 8 3

7. Each of the following matrices is the reduced row echelon form of an augmented matrix be-
longing to a system of linear equations in the variables xi , (i = 1, 2, 3 in part a), i = 1, 2, 3, 4
in part b)). (Both the systems represented here have infinitely many solutions – why?)
For each augmented matrix determine the number of parameters needed to solve the system
and express the solution of the system in parametric form.
1 0 4 0 1 2 0 0 6
! !
a) 0 1 −5 −1 b) 0 0 1 0 5
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 −1
 Linear Mathematics Tutorial 1 Page 2

n  x1  o
8. Recall that R3 = x2
x3
x1 , x 2 , x 3 ∈ R is a vector space. Give a geometric interpretation of
3
each of the following subsets of R and determine whether or not each subset is a vector space
(under the usual addition of vectors and multiplication by scalars).
n  x1  o
3 x1 x2
a) A = x 2 ∈ R 2 = − 3 = x3
n  xx31  o
3 2 2 2
b) B = x2
x3
∈ R x 1 + x 2 + x 3 ≤ 1
 1 −3 2 
9. Let A = 2 −5 6 .
−1 0 −8
a) Use Gaussian elimination (that is, reduce the augmented matrix to row
 x1   echelon form) to
0
find all solutions of the equation Ax = 0, where x = xx23 and 0 = 0 .
0
b) Hence show that some non–zero linear combination of the columns of A is equal to 0.
b1
 
c) Let b = b2 ∈ R3 and suppose that Ax = b is a consistent system. Using (a), show that
b3
the equation Ax = b has infinitely many solutions.
10. Let V be the set of all ordered pairs of real numbers, and consider the following addition and
scalar multiplication operations on u = (u1 , u2 ) and v = (v1 , v2 ):

u + v = (u1 + v1 , u2 + v2 ), ku = (ku1 , 0)

a) Compute u + v and ku for u = (−1, 2), v = (3, 4) and k = 3.

b) Explain in words why V is closed under addition and scalar multiplication. (That is,
explain why the vector space axioms A1 and S1 hold for V .)
c) Note that addition on V is the standard addition operation on R2 . Hence, certain vector
space axioms hold for V because they are known to hold for R2 . Which axioms are they?
d) Show that the axioms S2, S3 and S4 hold.
e) Show that V is not a vector space under the given operations.

Extra exercise

11. Let V be the set of positive

L realNnumbers. For any real number k, and any numbers u and v
in V , define operations and on V by:
L
u v = uv (vector addition)
k
N
k u=u (scalar multiplication)

Show that V , with these operations, is a vector space.