Exercises 25

Exercises
1.1 Vector equations. Determine whether each of the equations below is true, false, or contains
bad notation (and therefore does not make sense).
1
" #
(a) 2 = (1, 2, 1).
1
1
" #
 
(b) 2 = 1, 2, 1 .
1
(c) (1, (2, 1)) = ((1, 2), 1).
1.2 Vector notation. Which of the following expressions uses correct notation? When the
expression does make sense, give its length. In the following, a and b are 10-vectors, and
c is a 20-vector.
(a) a + b − c3:12 .
(b) (a, b, c3:13 ).
(c) 2a + c.
(d) (a, 1) + (c1 , b).
(e) ((a, b), a).
(f) [ a b ] + 4c.
 
a
(g) + 4c.
b
1.3 Overloading. Which of the following expressions uses correct notation? If the notation is
correct, is it also unambiguous? Assume that a is a 10-vector and b is a 20-vector.
(a) b = (0, a).
(b) a = (0, b).
(c) b = (0, a, 0).
(d) a = 0 = b.
1.4 Periodic energy usage. The 168-vector w gives the hourly electricity consumption of
a manufacturing plant, starting on Sunday midnight to 1AM, over one week, in MWh
(megawatt-hours). The consumption pattern is the same each day, i.e., it is 24-periodic,
which means that wt+24 = wt for t = 1, . . . , 144. Let d be the 24-vector that gives the
energy consumption over one day, starting at midnight.
(a) Use vector notation to express w in terms of d.
(b) Use vector notation to express d in terms of w.
1.5 Interpreting sparsity. Suppose the n-vector x is sparse, i.e., has only a few nonzero entries.
Give a short sentence or two explaining what this means in each of the following contexts.
(a) x represents the daily cash flow of some business over n days.
(b) x represents the annual dollar value purchases by a customer of n products or ser-
vices.
(c) x represents a portfolio, say, the dollar value holdings of n stocks.
(d) x represents a bill of materials for a project, i.e., the amounts of n materials needed.
(e) x represents a monochrome image, i.e., the brightness values of n pixels.
(f) x is the daily rainfall in a location over one year.
26 1 Vectors

1.6 Vector of differences. Suppose x is an n-vector. The associated vector of differences is the
(n − 1)-vector d given by d = (x2 − x1 , x3 − x2 , . . . , xn − xn−1 ). Express d in terms of x
using vector operations (e.g., slicing notation, sum, difference, linear combinations, inner
product). The difference vector has a simple interpretation when x represents a time
series. For example, if x gives the daily value of some quantity, d gives the day-to-day
changes in the quantity.
1.7 Transforming between two encodings for Boolean vectors. A Boolean n-vector is one
for which all entries are either 0 or 1. Such vectors are used to encode whether each
of n conditions holds, with ai = 1 meaning that condition i holds. Another common
encoding of the same information uses the two values −1 and +1 for the entries. For
example the Boolean vector (0, 1, 1, 0) would be written using this alternative encoding
as (−1, +1, +1, −1). Suppose that x is a Boolean vector with entries that are 0 or 1, and
y is a vector encoding the same information using the values −1 and +1. Express y in
terms of x using vector notation. Also, express x in terms of y using vector notation.
1.8 Profit and sales vectors. A company sells n different products or items. The n-vector p
gives the profit, in dollars per unit, for each of the n items. (The entries of p are typically
positive, but a few items might have negative entries. These items are called loss leaders,
and are used to increase customer engagement in the hope that the customer will make
other, profitable purchases.) The n-vector s gives the total sales of each of the items, over
some period (such as a month), i.e., si is the total number of units of item i sold. (These
are also typically nonnegative, but negative entries can be used to reflect items that were
purchased in a previous time period and returned in this one.) Express the total profit in
terms of p and s using vector notation.
1.9 Symptoms vector. A 20-vector s records whether each of 20 different symptoms is present
in a medical patient, with si = 1 meaning the patient has the symptom and si = 0
meaning she does not. Express the following using vector notation.
(a) The total number of symptoms the patient has.
(b) The patient exhibits five out of the first ten symptoms.
1.10 Total score from course record. The record for each student in a class is given as a 10-
vector r, where r1 , . . . , r8 are the grades for the 8 homework assignments, each on a 0–10
scale, r9 is the midterm exam grade on a 0–120 scale, and r10 is final exam score on a
0–160 scale. The student’s total course score s, on a 0–100 scale, is based 25% on the
homework, 35% on the midterm exam, and 40% on the final exam. Express s in the form
s = wT r. (That is, determine the 10-vector w.) You can give the coefficients of w to 4
digits after the decimal point.
1.11 Word count and word count histogram vectors. Suppose the n-vector w is the word count
vector associated with a document and a dictionary of n words. For simplicity we will
assume that all words in the document appear in the dictionary.
(a) What is 1T w?
(b) What does w282 = 0 mean?
(c) Let h be the n-vector that gives the histogram of the word counts, i.e., hi is the
fraction of the words in the document that are word i. Use vector notation to express
h in terms of w. (You can assume that the document contains at least one word.)
1.12 Total cash value. An international company holds cash in five currencies: USD (US
dollar), RMB (Chinese yuan), EUR (euro), GBP (British pound), and JPY (Japanese
yen), in amounts given by the 5-vector c. For example, c2 gives the number of RMB held.
Negative entries in c represent liabilities or amounts owed. Express the total (net) value
of the cash in USD, using vector notation. Be sure to give the size and define the entries
of any vectors that you introduce in your solution. Your solution can refer to currency
exchange rates.
 Exercises 27

1.13 Average age in a population. Suppose the 100-vector x represents the distribution of ages
in some population of people, with xi being the number of i−1 year olds, for i = 1, . . . , 100.
(You can assume that x 6= 0, and that there is no one in the population over age 99.)
Find expressions, using vector notation, for the following quantities.
(a) The total number of people in the population.
(b) The total number of people in the population age 65 and over.
(c) The average age of the population. (You can use ordinary division of numbers in
your expression.)
1.14 Industry or sector exposure. Consider a set of n assets or stocks that we invest in. Let
f be an n-vector that encodes whether each asset is in some specific industry or sector,
e.g., pharmaceuticals or consumer electronics. Specifically, we take fi = 1 if asset i is in
the sector, and fi = 0 if it is not. Let the n-vector h denote a portfolio, with hi the dollar
value held in asset i (with negative meaning a short position). The inner product f T h
is called the (dollar value) exposure of our portfolio to the sector. It gives the net dollar
value of the portfolio that is invested in assets from the sector. A portfolio h is called
neutral (to a sector or industry) if f T h = 0.
A portfolio h is called long only if each entry is nonnegative, i.e., hi ≥ 0 for each i. This
means the portfolio does not include any short positions.
What does it mean if a long-only portfolio is neutral to a sector, say, pharmaceuticals?
Your answer should be in simple English, but you should back up your conclusion with
an argument.
1.15 Cheapest supplier. You must buy n raw materials in quantities given by the n-vector q,
where qi is the amount of raw material i that you must buy. A set of K potential suppliers
offer the raw materials at prices given by the n-vectors p1 , . . . , pK . (Note that pk is an
n-vector; (pk )i is the price that supplier k charges per unit of raw material i.) We will
assume that all quantities and prices are positive.
If you must choose just one supplier, how would you do it? Your answer should use vector
notation.
A (highly paid) consultant tells you that you might do better (i.e., get a better total cost)
by splitting your order into two, by choosing two suppliers and ordering (1/2)q (i.e., half
the quantities) from each of the two. He argues that having a diversity of suppliers is
better. Is he right? If so, explain how to find the two suppliers you would use to fill half
the order.
1.16 Inner product of nonnegative vectors. A vector is called nonnegative if all its entries are
nonnegative.
(a) Explain why the inner product of two nonnegative vectors is nonnegative.
(b) Suppose the inner product of two nonnegative vectors is zero. What can you say
about them? Your answer should be in terms of their respective sparsity patterns,
i.e., which entries are zero and nonzero.
1.17 Linear combinations of cash flows. We consider cash flow vectors over T time periods,
with a positive entry meaning a payment received, and negative meaning a payment
made. A (unit) single period loan, at time period t, is the T -vector lt that corresponds
to a payment received of $1 in period t and a payment made of $(1 + r) in period t + 1,
with all other payments zero. Here r > 0 is the interest rate (over one period).
Let c be a $1 T − 1 period loan, starting at period 1. This means that $1 is received in
period 1, $(1 + r)T −1 is paid in period T , and all other payments (i.e., c2 , . . . , cT −1 ) are
zero. Express c as a linear combination of single period loans.
1.18 Linear combinations of linear combinations. Suppose that each of the vectors b1 , . . . , bk is
a linear combination of the vectors a1 , . . . , am , and c is a linear combination of b1 , . . . , bk .
Then c is a linear combination of a1 , . . . , am . Show this for the case with m = k = 2.
(Showing it in general is not much more difficult, but the notation gets more complicated.)
28 1 Vectors

1.19 Auto-regressive model. Suppose that z1 , z2 , . . . is a time series, with the number zt giving
the value in period or time t. For example zt could be the gross sales at a particular store
on day t. An auto-regressive (AR) model is used to predict zt+1 from the previous M
values, zt , zt−1 , . . . , zt−M +1 :

ẑt+1 = (zt , zt−1 , . . . , zt−M +1 )T β, t = M, M + 1, . . . .

Here ẑt+1 denotes the AR model’s prediction of zt+1 , M is the memory length of the
AR model, and the M -vector β is the AR model coefficient vector. For this problem we
will assume that the time period is daily, and M = 10. Thus, the AR model predicts
tomorrow’s value, given the values over the last 10 days.
For each of the following cases, give a short interpretation or description of the AR model
in English, without referring to mathematical concepts like vectors, inner product, and
so on. You can use words like ‘yesterday’ or ‘today’.
(a) β ≈ e1 .
(b) β ≈ 2e1 − e2 .
(c) β ≈ e6 .
(d) β ≈ 0.5e1 + 0.5e2 .
1.20 How many bytes does it take to store 100 vectors of length 105 ? How many flops does
it take to form a linear combination of them (with 100 nonzero coefficients)? About how
long would this take on a computer capable of carrying out 1 Gflop/s?