Let $T: \R^n \to \R^m$ be a linear transformation.
Suppose that the nullity of $T$ is zero.
If $\{\mathbf{x}_1, \mathbf{x}_2,\dots, \mathbf{x}_k\}$ is a linearly independent subset of $\R^n$, then show that $\{T(\mathbf{x}_1), T(\mathbf{x}_2), \dots, T(\mathbf{x}_k) \}$ is a linearly independent subset of $\R^m$.
Let $V$ denote the vector space of all real $2\times 2$ matrices.
Suppose that the linear transformation from $V$ to $V$ is given as below.
\[T(A)=\begin{bmatrix}
2 & 3\\
5 & 7
\end{bmatrix}A-A\begin{bmatrix}
2 & 3\\
5 & 7
\end{bmatrix}.\]
Prove or disprove that the linear transformation $T:V\to V$ is an isomorphism.
Let
\[R=\left\{\, \begin{bmatrix}
a & b\\
0& a
\end{bmatrix} \quad \middle | \quad a, b\in \Q \,\right\}.\]
Then the usual matrix addition and multiplication make $R$ an ring.
Let
\[J=\left\{\, \begin{bmatrix}
0 & b\\
0& 0
\end{bmatrix} \quad \middle | \quad b \in \Q \,\right\}\]
be a subset of the ring $R$.
(a) Prove that the subset $J$ is an ideal of the ring $R$.
(b) Prove that the quotient ring $R/J$ is isomorphic to $\Q$.
Let $R$ be a commutative ring. Consider the polynomial ring $R[x,y]$ in two variables $x, y$.
Let $(x)$ be the principal ideal of $R[x,y]$ generated by $x$.
Prove that $R[x, y]/(x)$ is isomorphic to $R[y]$ as a ring.
Let $G, H, K$ be groups. Let $f:G\to K$ be a group homomorphism and let $\pi:G\to H$ be a surjective group homomorphism such that the kernel of $\pi$ is included in the kernel of $f$: $\ker(\pi) \subset \ker(f)$.
Define a map $\bar{f}:H\to K$ as follows.
For each $h\in H$, there exists $g\in G$ such that $\pi(g)=h$ since $\pi:G\to H$ is surjective.
Define $\bar{f}:H\to K$ by $\bar{f}(h)=f(g)$.
(a) Prove that the map $\bar{f}:H\to K$ is well-defined.
(b) Prove that $\bar{f}:H\to K$ is a group homomorphism.
Let $\calF[0, 2\pi]$ be the vector space of all real valued functions defined on the interval $[0, 2\pi]$.
Define the map $f:\R^2 \to \calF[0, 2\pi]$ by
\[\left(\, f\left(\, \begin{bmatrix}
\alpha \\
\beta
\end{bmatrix} \,\right) \,\right)(x):=\alpha \cos x + \beta \sin x.\]
We put
\[V:=\im f=\{\alpha \cos x + \beta \sin x \in \calF[0, 2\pi] \mid \alpha, \beta \in \R\}.\]
(a) Prove that the map $f$ is a linear transformation.
(b) Prove that the set $\{\cos x, \sin x\}$ is a basis of the vector space $V$.
(c) Prove that the kernel is trivial, that is, $\ker f=\{\mathbf{0}\}$.
(This yields an isomorphism of $\R^2$ and $V$.)
(d) Define a map $g:V \to V$ by
\[g(\alpha \cos x + \beta \sin x):=\frac{d}{dx}(\alpha \cos x+ \beta \sin x)=\beta \cos x -\alpha \sin x.\]
Prove that the map $g$ is a linear transformation.
(e) Find the matrix representation of the linear transformation $g$ with respect to the basis $\{\cos x, \sin x\}$.
Suppose that the vectors
\[\mathbf{v}_1=\begin{bmatrix}
-2 \\
1 \\
0 \\
0 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, \qquad \mathbf{v}_2=\begin{bmatrix}
-4 \\
0 \\
-3 \\
-2 \\
1
\end{bmatrix}\]
are a basis vectors for the null space of a $4\times 5$ matrix $A$. Find a vector $\mathbf{x}$ such that
\[\mathbf{x}\neq0, \quad \mathbf{x}\neq \mathbf{v}_1, \quad \mathbf{x}\neq \mathbf{v}_2,\]
and
\[A\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{0}.\]
(Stanford University, Linear Algebra Exam Problem)
Let $V$ be the subspace of $\R^4$ defined by the equation
\[x_1-x_2+2x_3+6x_4=0.\]
Find a linear transformation $T$ from $\R^3$ to $\R^4$ such that the null space $\calN(T)=\{\mathbf{0}\}$ and the range $\calR(T)=V$. Describe $T$ by its matrix $A$.
A hyperplane in $n$-dimensional vector space $\R^n$ is defined to be the set of vectors
\[\begin{bmatrix}
x_1 \\
x_2 \\
\vdots \\
x_n
\end{bmatrix}\in \R^n\]
satisfying the linear equation of the form
\[a_1x_1+a_2x_2+\cdots+a_nx_n=b,\]
where $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n$ (at least one of $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n$ is nonzero) and $b$ are real numbers.
Here at least one of $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n$ is nonzero.
Consider the hyperplane $P$ in $\R^n$ described by the linear equation
\[a_1x_1+a_2x_2+\cdots+a_nx_n=0,\]
where $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n$ are some fixed real numbers and not all of these are zero.
(The constant term $b$ is zero.)
Then prove that the hyperplane $P$ is a subspace of $R^{n}$ of dimension $n-1$.
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Let $T:\R^n \to \R$ be a non-zero linear transformation.
Prove the followings.
(a) The nullity of $T$ is $n-1$. That is, the dimension of the nullspace of $T$ is $n-1$.
(b) Let $B=\{\mathbf{v}_1, \cdots, \mathbf{v}_{n-1}\}$ be a basis of the nullspace $\calN(T)$ of $T$.
Let $\mathbf{w}$ be the $n$-dimensional vector that is not in $\calN(T)$. Then
\[B’=\{\mathbf{v}_1, \cdots, \mathbf{v}_{n-1}, \mathbf{w}\}\]
is a basis of $\R^n$.
(c) Each vector $\mathbf{u}\in \R^n$ can be expressed as
\[\mathbf{u}=\mathbf{v}+\frac{T(\mathbf{u})}{T(\mathbf{w})}\mathbf{w}\]
for some vector $\mathbf{v}\in \calN(T)$.
Let $A$ be the matrix for a linear transformation $T:\R^n \to \R^n$ with respect to the standard basis of $\R^n$.
We assume that $A$ is idempotent, that is, $A^2=A$.
Then prove that
\[\R^n=\im(T) \oplus \ker(T).\]
(a) Let $A=\begin{bmatrix}
1 & 2 & 1 \\
3 &6 &4
\end{bmatrix}$ and let
\[\mathbf{a}=\begin{bmatrix}
-3 \\
1 \\
1
\end{bmatrix}, \qquad \mathbf{b}=\begin{bmatrix}
-2 \\
1 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, \qquad \mathbf{c}=\begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
1
\end{bmatrix}.\]
For each of the vectors $\mathbf{a}, \mathbf{b}, \mathbf{c}$, determine whether the vector is in the null space $\calN(A)$. Do the same for the range $\calR(A)$.
(b) Find a basis of the null space of the matrix $B=\begin{bmatrix}
1 & 1 & 2 \\
-2 &-2 &-4
\end{bmatrix}$.
Let $A$ and $B$ be $n\times n$ matrices. Then prove that
\[\calN(A)\cap \calN(B) \subset \calN(A+B),\]
where $\calN(A)$ is the null space (kernel) of the matrix $A$.
Let $A$ be a real $7\times 3$ matrix such that its null space is spanned by the vectors
\[\begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
2 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, \begin{bmatrix}
2 \\
1 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, \text{ and } \begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
-1 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}.\]
Then find the rank of the matrix $A$.
(Purdue University, Linear Algebra Final Exam Problem)
Let $R$ be a commutative ring with $1$ and let $G$ be a finite group with identity element $e$. Let $RG$ be the group ring. Then the map $\epsilon: RG \to R$ defined by
\[\epsilon(\sum_{i=1}^na_i g_i)=\sum_{i=1}^na_i,\]
where $a_i\in R$ and $G=\{g_i\}_{i=1}^n$, is a ring homomorphism, called the augmentation map and the kernel of $\epsilon$ is called the augmentation ideal.
(a) Prove that the augmentation ideal in the group ring $RG$ is generated by $\{g-e \mid g\in G\}$.
(b) Prove that if $G=\langle g\rangle$ is a finite cyclic group generated by $g$, then the augmentation ideal is generated by $g-e$.