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Unit 1 PT 3 Gaussian Elim Part 2

The document discusses Gaussian elimination and systems of linear equations. It covers: 1) Flat, long, and homogeneous systems and their possible solutions. Flat systems have fewer equations than variables and either no solution or infinitely many solutions. Long systems can have any of the three possible solutions. 2) Examples of solving flat and long systems using Gaussian elimination. 3) A theorem stating that for an n×n coefficient matrix A, three conditions are equivalent for having a unique solution: the system can be row reduced to an upper triangular matrix with non-zero diagonals; every augmented system [A|b] has a unique solution; the only solution to the homogeneous system [A|0] is the zero vector

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11 views

Unit 1 PT 3 Gaussian Elim Part 2

The document discusses Gaussian elimination and systems of linear equations. It covers: 1) Flat, long, and homogeneous systems and their possible solutions. Flat systems have fewer equations than variables and either no solution or infinitely many solutions. Long systems can have any of the three possible solutions. 2) Examples of solving flat and long systems using Gaussian elimination. 3) A theorem stating that for an n×n coefficient matrix A, three conditions are equivalent for having a unique solution: the system can be row reduced to an upper triangular matrix with non-zero diagonals; every augmented system [A|b] has a unique solution; the only solution to the homogeneous system [A|0] is the zero vector

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sprinklesdb16
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WTW 164

Unit 1.3: Gaussian elimination


(part 2)
Dr HR (Maya) Thackeray
<[email protected]>
Flat and long systems
• A system of linear equations is flat when it has fewer equations than
variables (that is, the coefficient matrix has fewer rows than columns).
No flat system has a unique solution (“there are too few equations to
fix a solution uniquely”); every flat system has either no solutions or
infinitely many solutions.
• A system of linear equations is long when it has more equations than
variables (that is, the coefficient matrix has more rows than columns).
Any of the three options can apply to long systems (no solutions, a
unique solution, infinitely many solutions).
Example: Flat system (page 1)
Solve the following system of linear equations.

Solution. The corresponding augmented matrix is


.
Gaussian elimination proceeds as follows.
Example: Flat system (page 2)
R3 R3 – 2R1

R3 R 3 + R 2
The free variables correspond to the columns without pivot entries. In
this example, the free variables are x3 and x4 (columns 3 and 4 have no
pivot entries), so we may take x4 = t and x3 = s.
We have x2 = 2 – x3 – 3x4 = 2 – s – 3t and
x1 = 2 – 3x2 – x3 – 5x4 = 2 – 3(2 – s – 3t) – s – 5t = –4 + 2s + 4t.
Solutions: = , s , t .
Example: Long system (page 1)
Solve the following system of linear equations.

Solution. The corresponding augmented matrix is


.
Gaussian elimination proceeds as follows.
Example: Long system (page 2)
R2 R2 – 2R1, R3 R3 – 3R1

R2 R2 / (–5)

R3 R3 + 10R2
The last row gives the false equation 0 = –16; there is no solution.
If the last row were replaced with [0 0|0], then we would have a unique
solution (despite the presence of a 0 = 0 equation).
If each of the last two rows were replaced with [0 0|0], then we would have
infinitely many solutions.
Homogeneous systems
• A system of linear equations is homogeneous when the right side of
each equation is zero (that is, the augmented matrix is [A | 0], where
0 is the column consisting of as many zeros as there are rows in A).
For every homogeneous system, there is at least one solution, namely
the trivial solution = , so either
• the trivial solution is the unique solution, or
• there are infinitely many solutions (and the trivial solution is one of
the solutions).
For example, gives only the trivial solution, and gives infinitely many
solutions ( = t, t , if x1 and x2 are the variables in order).
Square coefficient matrices:
Unique Solution Theorem, version 1
Theorem. Suppose that A is an n by n matrix. The following statements
are equivalent (that is, all are true or all are false).
1. For every n by 1 column vector b, a system of linear equations with
augmented matrix [A | b] has a unique solution.
2. A is row equivalent to an upper-triangular matrix in which all
diagonal entries are nonzero.
3. The only solution to a homogeneous system of linear equations
with augmented matrix [A | 0] is the zero vector of length n.

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