# Tagged: system of linear equations

## 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)

## Problem 442

Consider the following system of linear equations
\begin{align*}
2x+3y+z&=-1\\
3x+3y+z&=1\\
2x+4y+z&=-2.
\end{align*}

(a) Find the coefficient matrix $A$ for this system.

(b) Find the inverse matrix of the coefficient matrix found in (a)

(c) Solve the system using the inverse matrix $A^{-1}$.

## Problem 393

(a) Let $A$ be a $6\times 6$ matrix and suppose that $A$ can be written as
$A=BC,$ where $B$ is a $6\times 5$ matrix and $C$ is a $5\times 6$ matrix.

Prove that the matrix $A$ cannot be invertible.

(b) Let $A$ be a $2\times 2$ matrix and suppose that $A$ can be written as
$A=BC,$ where $B$ is a $2\times 3$ matrix and $C$ is a $3\times 2$ matrix.

Can the matrix $A$ be invertible?

## Problem 300

Let $A$ be the coefficient matrix of the system of linear equations
\begin{align*}
-x_1-2x_2&=1\\
2x_1+3x_2&=-1.
\end{align*}

(a) Solve the system by finding the inverse matrix $A^{-1}$.

(b) Let $\mathbf{x}=\begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ x_2 \end{bmatrix}$ be the solution of the system obtained in part (a).
Calculate and simplify
$A^{2017}\mathbf{x}.$

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

## Problem 296

Solve the following system of linear equations and give the vector form for the general solution.
\begin{align*}
x_1 -x_3 -2x_5&=1 \\
x_2+3x_3-x_5 &=2 \\
2x_1 -2x_3 +x_4 -3x_5 &= 0
\end{align*}

(The Ohio State University, linear algebra midterm exam problem)

## Problem 295

Determine all possibilities for the number of solutions of each of the system of linear equations described below.

(a) A system of $5$ equations in $3$ unknowns and it has $x_1=0, x_2=-3, x_3=1$ as a solution.

(b) A homogeneous system of $5$ equations in $4$ unknowns and the rank of the system is $4$.

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

## Problem 288

In this post, we summarize theorems about the possibilities for the solution set of a system of linear equations and solve the following problems.

Determine all possibilities for the solution set of the system of linear equations described below.

(a) A homogeneous system of $3$ equations in $5$ unknowns.

(b) A homogeneous system of $5$ equations in $4$ unknowns.

(c) A system of $5$ equations in $4$ unknowns.

(d) A system of $2$ equations in $3$ unknowns that has $x_1=1, x_2=-5, x_3=0$ as a solution.

(e) A homogeneous system of $4$ equations in $4$ unknowns.

(f) A homogeneous system of $3$ equations in $4$ unknowns.

(g) A homogeneous system that has $x_1=3, x_2=-2, x_3=1$ as a solution.

(h) A homogeneous system of $5$ equations in $3$ unknowns and the rank of the system is $3$.

(i) A system of $3$ equations in $2$ unknowns and the rank of the system is $2$.

(j) A homogeneous system of $4$ equations in $3$ unknowns and the rank of the system is $2$.

## Problem 279

Determine conditions on the scalars $a, b$ so that the following set $S$ of vectors is linearly dependent.
\begin{align*}
S=\{\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2, \mathbf{v}_3\},
\end{align*}
where
$\mathbf{v}_1=\begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ 3 \\ 1 \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{v}_2=\begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ a \\ 4 \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{v}_3=\begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ 2 \\ b \end{bmatrix}.$

## Problem 273

(a) The given matrix is the augmented matrix for a system of linear equations.
Give the vector form for the general solution.
$\left[\begin{array}{rrrrr|r} 1 & 0 & -1 & 0 &-2 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 & 2 & 0 & -1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 \\ \end{array} \right].$

(b) Let
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 2 & 3 \\ 4 &5 &6 \end{bmatrix}, B=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 & 1 \\ 0 &1 &0 \end{bmatrix}, C=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 2\\ 0& 6 \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{v}=\begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ 1 \\ 0 \end{bmatrix}.$ Then compute and simplify the following expression.
$\mathbf{v}^{\trans}\left( A^{\trans}-(A-B)^{\trans}\right)C.$

## Problem 272

Let
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 3\\ 2& 4 \end{bmatrix}.$ Then

(a) Find all matrices
$B=\begin{bmatrix} x & y\\ z& w \end{bmatrix}$ such that $AB=BA$.

(b) Use the results of part (a) to exhibit $2\times 2$ matrices $B$ and $C$ such that
$AB=BA \text{ and } AC \neq CA.$

## Problem 267

Solve the following system of linear equations by transforming its augmented matrix to reduced echelon form (Gauss-Jordan elimination).

Find the vector form for the general solution.
\begin{align*}
x_1-x_3-3x_5&=1\\
3x_1+x_2-x_3+x_4-9x_5&=3\\
x_1-x_3+x_4-2x_5&=1.
\end{align*}

## Problem 262

(a) Solve the following system by transforming the augmented matrix to reduced echelon form (Gauss-Jordan elimination). Indicate the elementary row operations you performed.
\begin{align*}
x_1+x_2-x_5&=1\\
x_2+2x_3+x_4+3x_5&=1\\
x_1-x_3+x_4+x_5&=0
\end{align*}

(b) Determine all possibilities for the solution set of a homogeneous system of $2$ equations in $2$ unknowns that has a solution $x_1=1, x_2=5$.

## Problem 257

Use Cramer’s rule to solve the system of linear equations
\begin{align*}
3x_1-2x_2&=5\\
7x_1+4x_2&=-1.
\end{align*}

## Problem 256

Let $P_4$ be the vector space consisting of all polynomials of degree $4$ or less with real number coefficients.
Let $W$ be the subspace of $P_2$ by
$W=\{ p(x)\in P_4 \mid p(1)+p(-1)=0 \text{ and } p(2)+p(-2)=0 \}.$ Find a basis of the subspace $W$ and determine the dimension of $W$.

## Problem 249

Suppose that the following matrix $A$ is the augmented matrix for a system of linear equations.
$A= \left[\begin{array}{rrr|r} 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \\ 2 &-1 & -2 & a^2 \\ -1 & -7 & -11 & a \end{array} \right],$ where $a$ is a real number. Determine all the values of $a$ so that the corresponding system is consistent.

## Problem 164

Let $T:\R^4 \to \R^3$ be a linear transformation defined by
$T\left (\, \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ x_2 \\ x_3 \\ x_4 \end{bmatrix} \,\right) = \begin{bmatrix} x_1+2x_2+3x_3-x_4 \\ 3x_1+5x_2+8x_3-2x_4 \\ x_1+x_2+2x_3 \end{bmatrix}.$

(a) Find a matrix $A$ such that $T(\mathbf{x})=A\mathbf{x}$.

(b) Find a basis for the null space of $T$.

(c) Find the rank of the linear transformation $T$.

(The Ohio State University linear algebra exam problem.)

## Problem 158

Let $C[3, 10]$ be the vector space consisting of all continuous functions defined on the interval $[3, 10]$. Consider the set
$S=\{ \sqrt{x}, x^2 \}$ in $C[3,10]$.

Show that the set $S$ is linearly independent in $C[3,10]$.

## Problem 132

Let
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 & 0 \\ 1 &1 &0 \end{bmatrix}$ be a matrix.

Find a basis of the null space of the matrix $A$.

(Remark: a null space is also called a kernel.)

## Problem 107

For what value(s) of $a$ does the system have nontrivial solutions?
\begin{align*}
&x_1+2x_2+x_3=0\\
&-x_1-x_2+x_3=0\\
& 3x_1+4x_2+ax_3=0.
\end{align*}

## Problem 102

Determine whether the following systems of equations (or matrix equations) described below has no solution, one unique solution or infinitely many solutions and justify your answer.

(a) $\left\{ \begin{array}{c} ax+by=c \\ dx+ey=f, \end{array} \right.$ where $a,b,c, d$ are scalars satisfying $a/d=b/e=c/f$.

(b) $A \mathbf{x}=\mathbf{0}$, where $A$ is a non-singular matrix.

(c) A homogeneous system of $3$ equations in $4$ unknowns.

(d) $A\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{b}$, where the row-reduced echelon form of the augmented matrix $[A|\mathbf{b}]$ looks as follows:
$\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 & -1 & 0 \\ 0 &1 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}.$ (The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Exam)