2023-2024 Second Semester

MATH 2101 Linear Algebra I

Assignment 1 Answer Sheet

1(a) 1(b) 1(c)

1(d) 1(e) 1(f)

2(a) 2(b) 2(c) 2(d)

2(e) 2(f) 2(g)

Question Answer Explanation

3(a) T/F

3(b) T/F
Question Answer Explanation

3(c) T/F

3(d) T/F

3(e) T/F

Question Answer Explanation

4(a) Yes / No

4(b)

Question Answer

4(c)(i)

4(c)(ii)

4(c)(iii)
 2023-2024 Second Semester
MATH 2101 Linear Algebra I

Assignment 1

Instructions:

• Answer all the questions on the answer sheet. You can either
(i) write on a tablet computer directly, OR
(ii) print the answer sheet, write on it and then scan. Make sure that your work is
properly scanned. Oversized, blurred or upside-down images will NOT be graded.

• Please submit your work as one single PDF file in Moodle.

• No late work will be accepted.

1. In this question you only need to give the answers. No explanation is needed.
 
1 0 3 0
Let A be a 3 × 4 matrix with reduced row echelon form U = 0 a 2 0 where c ̸= 0.
 

0 0 b c

(a) Find (a, b, c).

(b) What is the nullity of A?

 
1
(c) How many solutions are there to the system Ax = 2?
 

3
   
1 4
(d) If the first two columns of A are 2 and 5, what is the third column?
   

3 6

(e) What is the span of the columns of A?

(f) If A is the standard matrix of a linear transformation T , what is the null space of
T.
2. In each multiple choice question below, some numbered choices are given and some are
correct (wordings like is and are do not indicate the singularity/plurality of the number
of correct choices). Answer the question by adding up the numbers of the correct choices.
In case all choices are wrong, answer 0. Explanation is not required.

EXAMPLE: Which of the following is correct?

(1) 1 + 2 = 3.
(2) 1 + 1 = 2.
(4) 1/0 = 1.
(8) 1 − 1 = 0. Answer: 11.

(a) Which of the following must be true if A, B, C, I are all 3 × 3 matrices (with I
denoting the identity matrix)?
(1) (AB)C = A(BC).
(2) (A + B)2 = A2 + 2AB + B 2 .
(4) I 2 − A2 = (I + A)(I − A).
(8) A2 − 3A = A(A − 3I).

(b) A system of linear equations has a unique solution. Which of the following is a
possible augmented matrix of the system?
 
1 0 0 0
(1)  0 1 0 5 .
 

0 0 1 1
 
0 1 2 0 1
 
 0 0 0 1 3 
(2) 
 0 0
.
 0 0 0 

0 0 0 0 0
 
1 0 0 0 1
 
 0 1 0 0 3 
(4) 
 0 0
.
 1 0 2 

0 0 0 1 0
 
1 0 1 4
(8)  0 1 0 3 .
 

0 0 0 1
(c) Let A be an n × n matrix. Which of the following must exist?
(1) An inverse of A
(2) An LU decomposition of A
(4) A reduced row echelon form of A
(8) A solution to the system Ax = 0 where 0 ∈ Rn

(d) Let J5 be the 5 × 5 matrix in which every entry is 1. Which of the following is true
about this matrix?
(1) It has rank 1.
(2) The determinant of it is 1.
(4) It is an elementary matrix.
(8) Its columns are linearly independent.

(e) Which of the following must be true about a set of three linearly dependent vectors
in Rn ?
(1) One of them is a scalar multiple of another.
(2) Each of them can be written as a linear combination of the others.
(4) The three vectors cannot span Rn .
(8) If we form an n × 3 matrix using the three vectors as columns, the rank of the
matrix is less than 3.

(f) If A and B are both n × n matrices with rank k, which of the following must be
true?
(1) rank(A + B) =rank(B + A).
(2) rank(A − B) ≤rank(A + B).
(4) rank(A + B) ≤ k.
(8) rank(A − B) ≤ k.

(g) For a homogeneous system of 4 linear equations with 3 unknowns, which of the
following is possible?
(1) The solution set is empty.
(2) The solution set contains unique solution.
(4) The solution set contains unique non-trivial solution.
(8) The solution set contains infinitely many solutions.
3. For each of the following statements, circle ‘T’ if it is true and ‘F’ if it is false on the
answer sheet, and then give a very brief (say, one-line) explanation.

(a) A system of 2 linear equations in 3 unknowns may have a unique solution.

(b) If the product of two matrices is equal to the zero matrix, then at least one matrix
has a zero entry.

(c) A matrix with two identical columns must be non-invertible.

(d) If A and B are symmetric matrices of the same size, then A + B is also symmetric.

(e) If two matrices are commutative, both of them are invertible.

4. Let T : Rn → Rm be a linear transformtion. We know that every linear transformtion is

a matrix transformation, so there exists a matrix A such that T (x) = Ax for all x ∈ Rn .

(a) Is the choice of A unique? Explain.

(b) Suppose T is injective but not surjective. What can you deduce about the relative
sizes of m and n (e.g. m ≤ n or m > n or m = n or things alike)? Explain.
(c) Now suppose n = m = 3 and T ((x, y, z)T ) = (x − 2z, 3x + y − 2z, −5x − y + 9z)T .
The following shows a sequence of elementary row operations on [A|I]:
   
1 0 −2 1 0 0 1 0 −2 1 0 0
−3r1 +r2 →r2   r2 +r3 →r3 
[A|I] −−−−−−−→  0 1 4 −3 1 0  −−−−−−→  0 1 4 −3 1 0 

5r1 +r3 →r3
0 −1 −1 5 0 1 0 0 3 2 1 1
   
7 2 2
1
1 0 −2 1 0 0 1 0 0 3 3 3
r →r3 
3 3  2r3 +r1 →r1 
−−−−→  0 1 4 −3 1 0  −−−−−−−→  0 1 0 − 17 − 13 − 43 

−4r3 +r2 →r2 3
2 1 1 2 1 1
0 0 1 3 3 3
0 0 1 3 3 3

Write down (explanation is not needed) the following.

(i) The matrix A
(ii) An LU decomposition of A
(iii) A formula for T −1 ((x, y, z)T )