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Ass 2

Uploaded by

Paco Tang
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© © All Rights Reserved
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2012-13 First Semester

MATH 1111 Linear Algebra

Assignment 2

Due Date: 22nd October, 2012 (Monday), 5:00 p.m.

• Write down your name (as on your HKU student card) and student number. Write neatly
on A4-sized paper and show your steps.

• Put your assignment in the assignment box marked MATH 1111 corresponding to your tutor
at the lift lobby of 4/F of the Run Run Shaw building.

• For questions marked ‘Easy! ’, you may skip them if they are really easy for you.

• For questions marked ‘Challenging! ’, you may skip them if they are too difficult for you.

1. (Easy! ) Evaluate the following determinants.

1 2
(a)
3 4

1 2 3
(b) 3 4 5
0 1 2
1 2 3 4
3 4 5 6
(c)
2 2 2 2
1 3 5 7

 
1 1 1
2. (Easy! ) Compute the adjoint and the inverse of the matrix A = −1 1 −2.
 

1 1 4

3. (Easy! ) Use Cramer’s rule to solve the system



 2x1 + x2 − x3 = 1

x1 − x2 − x3 = 3 .

x1 + x2 − x3 = 2

1
4. (Easy! ) Check that the set of all polynomials with even degrees forms a vector space under
the usual addition and scalar multiplication of polynomials.

5. Show that if a square matrix A has two identical rows, then det(A) = 0.

6. Let A = (aij ) be a non-singular n × n matrix with the cofactor Ann 6= 0. Let B be the
matrix which is identical to A except that its (n, n)-entry is
det(A)
ann − .
Ann
Show that B is singular.

7. Let V be a vector space, x ∈ V and α, β be scalars. Show that

(a) β · 0 = 0;
(b) if αx = 0, then either α = 0 or x = 0.

8. Let A be an n × n matrix and S be the set of n × n matrices which commute with A, i.e.

S = {B | AB = BA}.

Show that S forms a subspace of the vector space of all n × n matrices under the usual
addition and scalar multiplication of matrices.

9. Let A and B be n × n matrices, and V be a vector space. Determine whether each of the
following statements is true or false.

(a) If A is invertible, then det(A−1 ) = (det A)−1 .


(b) If n = 2, A2 = I and det(A) = 1, then A = ±I.
(c) If A and B are both non-singular, then det(A+B) must not be equal to det(A)+det(B).
(d) If W1 and W2 are subspaces of V , then W1 ∩ W2 is also a subspace of V .
(e) If W1 and W2 are subspaces of V , then W1 ∪ W2 is also a subspace of V .

10. (Challenging! ) Let A be a skew-symmetric matrix. What do you know about det(A)? Prove
some results if you can, and make some conjectures for cases you cannot prove.

11. (Challenging! ) Let A be a non-singular square matrix with integral entries. Show that if
det(A) = ±1, then the entries of A−1 are also integral. Is the converse true?

12. (Challenging! ) Let x1 , x2 , ..., xn be real numbers. Consider the matrix A = (aij ) defined by
aij = (xi )j−1 . (Such a matrix is called a Vandermonde matrix.) Show that A is invertible if
and only if x1 , x2 , ..., xn are pairwise distinct.

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