University of Waterloo

MATH 235 Final Examination

Linear Algebra 2 for Honours Mathematics Spring 2024

Date of exam: August 14, 2024

Exam period: 12:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Duration of exam: 150 minutes
Exam type: Closed book. No calculator.
Materials allowed: No additional materials are allowed.

Additional instructions

1. Write your answers in the space provided. If you need more room, use the space
available on the last page, and indicate this on the question page where you ran out
of room.

2. Do NOT detach any paper from this exam.

3. Unless the question states otherwise, you must justify all of your answers. You
may write in pen or pencil as long as your writing is legible. Your arguments must
be logical, clear and easy to understand.

4. There are 13 problems (some with multiple parts).

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Q1. (8 marks) Determine whether each statement is true or false. No justification re-
quired. Record your answer on the bubble sheet on the back of the exam.
Use A for TRUE and B for FALSE in Rows 1-8.

(a) If V is a 4-dimensional vector space over R, then V must be isomorphic to

M2×2 (R).

(b) If L : R3 → P1 (R) is a linear map, then L cannot be injective.

(c) If L : R3 → P1 (R) is a linear map, then L must be surjective.

(d) Span({1, x, 1 + x}) is a 3-dimensional subspace of P5 (C).

(e) Let L : V → W be a linear map,and let B and C be ordered bases for V and
1 1
W , respectively. If C [L]B = then L is an isomorphism.
1 1

#» #»
(f) Every solution to A #»
x = b is also a least squares solution to A #»
x = b.

(g) Let #» #» #»
v , w, u be vectors in an inner product space V . If ⟨ #» #» = ⟨ #»
v , w⟩ v , #»
u ⟩, then
#» #»
w = u.

(h) If all of the singular values of A ∈ Mm×n (F) are zero, then A is the zero matrix.

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Q2. (8 marks) Each of the following is worth 1 mark. No justification is required, and no
part marks will be awarded.

(a) Suppose V is a vector space with ordered basis B = { #» v 1 , #»

v 2 } and suppose
L : V → V is a linear operator. If L( v 1 ) = v 1 + v 2 and L( v 1 + #»
#» #» #» #» v 2 ) = 2 #»
v 1 − #»
v 2,
what is [L]B ?

   
1 2 1 0
(b) Give a value of c ∈ R that guarantees that the matrices and are
1 2 0 c
orthogonal with respect to the Frobenius inner product. If no such value exists,
write IMPOSSIBLE.

(c) Suppose W is a subspace of an inner product space V . If #»

x = #»
p + #»
r , where
#» #» ⊥ #» #» #»
p ∈ W and r ∈ W , determine ∥ x ∥ given that ∥ p ∥ = ∥ r ∥ = 1.

   
a b d b
(d) Let L : M2×2 (F) → M2×2 (F) be defined by L = . Write down
c d c a
an eigenvector of L with eigenvalue λ = 1.

[Q2 continues on page 6.]

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 [Q2 continued.]

(e) If L : R4 → M3×5 (R) is an injective linear map, what is rank(L)?

(f) Let W be a subspace of an inner product space V . Assume that dim(V ) = 3

and dim(W ) = 2, and let L : V → V be defined by L( #»
v ) = projW ( #»
v ). Write
down an eigenvalue of L.

(g) Suppose A ∈ M6×6 (C) is a self-adjoint matrix with characteristic polynomial

CA (λ) = (λ + 1)(λ − 1)2 (λ − 4)3 .

Let E4 be the eigenspace of A corresponding to λ = 4. What is dim(E4 )?

(h) If L : R3 → R5 has rank(L) = 1, what is dim(Ker(L)⊥ )? Assume Ker(L)⊥ is

defined with respect to the dot product.

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0 2
Q3. (3 marks) Unitarily diagonalize the matrix A = .
−2 0
That is, find a unitary matrix U and a diagonal matrix D such that A = U DU ∗ .

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Q4. In this problem, V = M2×2 (R) is given the Frobenius inner product.

Let W = Span(S), where S is

     
1 1 0 2 0 0
S= , , .
0 0 1 0 1 1
 
1 −1
(a) (4 marks) Find the vector in W that is closest to A = .
2 0

[Turn over for part (b).]

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 [Q4 continued]
 
1 −1
(b) (2 marks) Find the shortest distance from A = to W .
2 0

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  
a+b
Q5. Let L : P3 (F) → F3 be the linear map defined by L a + bx + cx2 + dx 3


= b − c .
a+d

(a) (1 mark) Determine the matrix C [L]B , where C is the standard basis of F3 and

B = 1 − x, 1 + x3 , 1 − x3 , − x2 + x3 .


(b) (2 marks) Find the rank of L.

(c) (2 marks) Determine if L is surjective.

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Q6. (4 marks) Let A ∈ Mn×n (C). Prove that Null(A) = Null(A∗ A).

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Q7. (3 marks) Let A ∈ Mn×n (F). Prove that if A is invertible and unitarily diagonalizable
then A−1 is unitarily diagonalizable.

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1 0
Q8. Consider W = A ∈ M2×2 (F) : A = .
−1 0

(a) (3 marks) Prove that W is a subspace of M2×2 (F).

(b) (3 marks) Can you find a set of 3 linearly independent vectors in W ?
If yes, write down 3 vectors and prove they are linearly independent. If no,
prove why no such set exists.

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1 1
Q9. (a) (2 marks) Let A = . Find the singular values of A.
0 0

 
1 0 √
(b) (2 marks) Let B = 0 0. One of the singular values of B is σ1 = 5. Find
2 0
a corresponding singular vector #»
v 1.

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1 1 0
(c) (3 marks) Let C = .
−1 1 1
√ √
The singular values of C
    are σ 1 = 3, σ 2 = 2 and σ3 = 0, with corresponding
−1 1 1
singular vectors  1  , 1 and −1, respectively.
1 0 2
Find U, V and Σ so that C = U ΣV ∗ is a singular value decomposition of C.

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Q10. (3 marks) Let L : V → V be a linear map on a finite-dimensional vector space V .
Let B be an ordered basis for V .

Prove that if #»
v ∈ V is an eigenvector of L with eigenvalue λ then [ #»
v ]B is an eigen-
vector of A = [L]B with eigenvalue λ.

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Q11. (3 marks) Let U ∈ Mn×n (C) be a unitary matrix.
Prove that if B = { #»
v 1 , . . . , #»
v n } is an orthonormal basis for Cn then C = {U #»
v 1 , . . . , U #»
v n}
is an orthonormal basis for C . n

[Note: Cn is given the standard inner product.]

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Q12. (2 marks) Let B ∈ Mn×n (R) be an invertible matrix.
Define L : Mn×n (R) → Mn×n (R) by L(A) = BAB −1 .
Prove that L is an isomorphism.
[Note: You may assume that L is a linear map.]

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Q13. (3 marks) Let A ∈ Mn×n (C) be a normal matrix, and let #»
v,w#» ∈ Cn be unit vectors.
Assume that A #»
v = 2 #» #» = i w.
v and A w #» Determine ∥ #» #» 2 .
v + w∥
[Note: Cn is given the standard inner product.]

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Q14. (3 marks) Let L : V → W be a linear map between inner product spaces. Prove that

⟨L( #» #» = 0 for all #»

v ), w⟩ #» ∈ W
v ∈ V and w

if and only if L is the zero map.

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