# Tagged: exam

## Problem 572

The following problems are Midterm 1 problems of Linear Algebra (Math 2568) at the Ohio State University in Autumn 2017.
There were 9 problems that covered Chapter 1 of our textbook (Johnson, Riess, Arnold).
The time limit was 55 minutes.

This post is Part 3 and contains Problem 7, 8, and 9.
Check out Part 1 and Part 2 for the rest of the exam problems.

Problem 7. Let $A=\begin{bmatrix} -3 & -4\\ 8& 9 \end{bmatrix}$ and $\mathbf{v}=\begin{bmatrix} -1 \\ 2 \end{bmatrix}$.

(a) Calculate $A\mathbf{v}$ and find the number $\lambda$ such that $A\mathbf{v}=\lambda \mathbf{v}$.

(b) Without forming $A^3$, calculate the vector $A^3\mathbf{v}$.

Problem 8. Prove that if $A$ and $B$ are $n\times n$ nonsingular matrices, then the product $AB$ is also nonsingular.

Problem 9.
Determine whether each of the following sentences is true or false.

(a) There is a $3\times 3$ homogeneous system that has exactly three solutions.

(b) If $A$ and $B$ are $n\times n$ symmetric matrices, then the sum $A+B$ is also symmetric.

(c) If $n$-dimensional vectors $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2, \mathbf{v}_3$ are linearly dependent, then the vectors $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2, \mathbf{v}_3, \mathbf{v}_4$ is also linearly dependent for any $n$-dimensional vector $\mathbf{v}_4$.

(d) If the coefficient matrix of a system of linear equations is singular, then the system is inconsistent.

(e) The vectors
$\mathbf{v}_1=\begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ 0 \\ 1 \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{v}_2=\begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ 1 \\ 0 \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{v}_3=\begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ 0 \\ 1 \end{bmatrix}$ are linearly independent.

## Problem 571

The following problems are Midterm 1 problems of Linear Algebra (Math 2568) at the Ohio State University in Autumn 2017.
There were 9 problems that covered Chapter 1 of our textbook (Johnson, Riess, Arnold).
The time limit was 55 minutes.

This post is Part 2 and contains Problem 4, 5, and 6.
Check out Part 1 and Part 3 for the rest of the exam problems.

Problem 4. Let
$\mathbf{a}_1=\begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ 2 \\ 3 \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{a}_2=\begin{bmatrix} 2 \\ -1 \\ 4 \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{b}=\begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ a \\ 2 \end{bmatrix}.$

Find all the values for $a$ so that the vector $\mathbf{b}$ is a linear combination of vectors $\mathbf{a}_1$ and $\mathbf{a}_2$.

Problem 5.
Find the inverse matrix of
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 0 & 0 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 &1 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}$ if it exists. If you think there is no inverse matrix of $A$, then give a reason.

Problem 6.
Consider the system of linear equations
\begin{align*}
3x_1+2x_2&=1\\
5x_1+3x_2&=2.
\end{align*}

(a) Find the coefficient matrix $A$ of the system.

(b) Find the inverse matrix of the coefficient matrix $A$.

(c) Using the inverse matrix of $A$, find the solution of the system.

(Linear Algebra Midterm Exam 1, the Ohio State University)

## Problem 570

The following problems are Midterm 1 problems of Linear Algebra (Math 2568) at the Ohio State University in Autumn 2017.
There were 9 problems that covered Chapter 1 of our textbook (Johnson, Riess, Arnold).
The time limit was 55 minutes.

This post is Part 1 and contains the first three problems.
Check out Part 2 and Part 3 for the rest of the exam problems.

Problem 1. Determine all possibilities for the number of solutions of each of the systems of linear equations described below.

(a) A consistent system of $5$ equations in $3$ unknowns and the rank of the system is $1$.

(b) A homogeneous system of $5$ equations in $4$ unknowns and it has a solution $x_1=1$, $x_2=2$, $x_3=3$, $x_4=4$.

Problem 2. Consider the homogeneous system of linear equations whose coefficient matrix is given by the following matrix $A$. Find the vector form for the general solution of the system.
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 & -1 & -2 \\ 2 &1 & -2 & -7 \\ 3 & 0 & -3 & -6 \\ 0 & 1 & 0 & -3 \end{bmatrix}.$

Problem 3. Let $A$ be the following invertible matrix.
$A=\begin{bmatrix} -1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5\\ 6 & -7 & 8& 9& 10\\ 11 & 12 & -13 & 14 & 15\\ 16 & 17 & 18& -19 & 20\\ 21 & 22 & 23 & 24 & -25 \end{bmatrix}$ Let $I$ be the $5\times 5$ identity matrix and let $B$ be a $5\times 5$ matrix.
Suppose that $ABA^{-1}=I$.
Then determine the matrix $B$.

(Linear Algebra Midterm Exam 1, the Ohio State University)

## Top 10 Popular Math Problems in 2016-2017

It’s been a year since I started this math blog!!

More than 500 problems were posted during a year (July 19th 2016-July 19th 2017).

I made a list of the 10 math problems on this blog that have the most views.

Can you solve all of them?

The level of difficulty among the top 10 problems.
【★★★】 Difficult (Final Exam Level)
【★★☆】 Standard(Midterm Exam Level)
【★☆☆】 Easy (Homework Level)

## Problem 495

Prove that every finite group having more than two elements has a nontrivial automorphism.

(Michigan State University, Abstract Algebra Qualifying Exam)

## Problem 486

Determine whether there exists a nonsingular matrix $A$ if
$A^4=ABA^2+2A^3,$ where $B$ is the following matrix.
$B=\begin{bmatrix} -1 & 1 & -1 \\ 0 &-1 &0 \\ 2 & 1 & -4 \end{bmatrix}.$

If such a nonsingular matrix $A$ exists, find the inverse matrix $A^{-1}$.

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 485

Let
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & -14 & 4 \\ -1 &6 &-2 \\ -2 & 24 & -7 \end{bmatrix} \quad \text{ and }\quad \mathbf{v}=\begin{bmatrix} 4 \\ -1 \\ -7 \end{bmatrix}.$ Find $A^{10}\mathbf{v}$.

You may use the following information without proving it.
The eigenvalues of $A$ are $-1, 0, 1$. The eigenspaces are given by
$E_{-1}=\Span\left\{\, \begin{bmatrix} 3 \\ -1 \\ -5 \end{bmatrix} \,\right\}, \quad E_{0}=\Span\left\{\, \begin{bmatrix} -2 \\ 1 \\ 4 \end{bmatrix} \,\right\}, \quad E_{1}=\Span\left\{\, \begin{bmatrix} -4 \\ 2 \\ 7 \end{bmatrix} \,\right\}.$

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 484

Let $A$ be a square matrix and its characteristic polynomial is give by
$p(t)=(t-1)^3(t-2)^2(t-3)^4(t-4).$ Find the rank of $A$.

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 483

Diagonalize the matrix
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 & 1 \\ 1 &1 &1 \\ 1 & 1 & 1 \end{bmatrix}.$ Namely, find a nonsingular matrix $S$ and a diagonal matrix $D$ such that $S^{-1}AS=D$.

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 482

For which values of constants $a, b$ and $c$ is the matrix
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 7 & a & b \\ 0 &2 &c \\ 0 & 0 & 3 \end{bmatrix}.$ diagonalizable?

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 481

Let $P_2$ be the vector space of all polynomials with real coefficients of degree $2$ or less.
Let $S=\{p_1(x), p_2(x), p_3(x), p_4(x)\}$, where
\begin{align*}
\end{align*}

(a) Find a basis of $P_2$ among the vectors of $S$. (Explain why it is a basis of $P_2$.)

(b) Let $B’$ be the basis you obtained in part (a).
For each vector of $S$ which is not in $B’$, find the coordinate vector of it with respect to the basis $B’$.

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 480

(a) Let $S$ be the subset of $\R^4$ consisting of vectors $\begin{bmatrix} x \\ y \\ z \\ w \end{bmatrix}$ satisfying
$2x+4y+3z+7w+1=0.$ Determine whether $S$ is a subspace of $\R^4$. If so prove it. If not, explain why it is not a subspace.

(b) Let $S$ be the subset of $\R^4$ consisting of vectors $\begin{bmatrix} x \\ y \\ z \\ w \end{bmatrix}$ satisfying
$2x+4y+3z+7w=0.$ Determine whether $S$ is a subspace of $\R^4$. If so prove it. If not, explain why it is not a subspace.

(These two problems look similar but note that the equations are different.)

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 479

Prove that if $n\times n$ matrices $A$ and $B$ are nonsingular, then the product $AB$ is also a nonsingular matrix.

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 478

Let $T:\R^2 \to \R^3$ be a linear transformation given by
$T\left(\, \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ x_2 \end{bmatrix} \,\right) = \begin{bmatrix} x_1-x_2 \\ x_2 \\ x_1+ x_2 \end{bmatrix}.$ Find an orthonormal basis of the range of $T$.

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 477

Determine whether the matrix
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 4\\ 2 & 3 \end{bmatrix}$ is diagonalizable.

If so, find a nonsingular matrix $S$ and a diagonal matrix $D$ such that $S^{-1}AS=D$.

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 476

Let
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 2 & 1 \\ -1 &4 &1 \\ 2 & -4 & 0 \end{bmatrix}.$ The matrix $A$ has an eigenvalue $2$.
Find a basis of the eigenspace $E_2$ corresponding to the eigenvalue $2$.

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 475

Find all the eigenvalues of the matrix
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 &0 & 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix}.$

(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)

## Problem 471

Let $A$ be a $3\times 3$ real orthogonal matrix with $\det(A)=1$.

(a) If $\frac{-1+\sqrt{3}i}{2}$ is one of the eigenvalues of $A$, then find the all the eigenvalues of $A$.

(b) Let
$A^{100}=aA^2+bA+cI,$ where $I$ is the $3\times 3$ identity matrix.
Using the Cayley-Hamilton theorem, determine $a, b, c$.

(Kyushu University, Linear Algebra Exam Problem)

## Problem 469

Let $H$ be a subgroup of a group $G$.
Suppose that for each element $x\in G$, we have $x^2\in H$.

Then prove that $H$ is a normal subgroup of $G$.

(Purdue University, Abstract Algebra Qualifying Exam)

## Problem 457

Let $A$ be a real symmetric $n\times n$ matrix with $0$ as a simple eigenvalue (that is, the algebraic multiplicity of the eigenvalue $0$ is $1$), and let us fix a vector $\mathbf{v}\in \R^n$.

(a) Prove that for sufficiently small positive real $\epsilon$, the equation
$A\mathbf{x}+\epsilon\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{v}$ has a unique solution $\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{x}(\epsilon) \in \R^n$.

(b) Evaluate
$\lim_{\epsilon \to 0^+} \epsilon \mathbf{x}(\epsilon)$ in terms of $\mathbf{v}$, the eigenvectors of $A$, and the inner product $\langle\, ,\,\rangle$ on $\R^n$.

(University of California, Berkeley, Linear Algebra Qualifying Exam)