Let $A$ and $B$ be $n\times n$ matrices.
Suppose that $A$ and $B$ have the same eigenvalues $\lambda_1, \dots, \lambda_n$ with the same corresponding eigenvectors $\mathbf{x}_1, \dots, \mathbf{x}_n$.
Prove that if the eigenvectors $\mathbf{x}_1, \dots, \mathbf{x}_n$ are linearly independent, then $A=B$.
(a) Let $R$ be a commutative ring. If we regard $R$ as a left $R$-module, then prove that any two distinct elements of the module $R$ are linearly dependent.
(b) Let $f: M\to M’$ be a left $R$-module homomorphism. Let $\{x_1, \dots, x_n\}$ be a subset in $M$. Prove that if the set $\{f(x_1), \dots, f(x_n)\}$ is linearly independent, then the set $\{x_1, \dots, x_n\}$ is also linearly independent.
Let $f(x)=\sin^2(x)$, $g(x)=\cos^2(x)$, and $h(x)=1$. These are vectors in $C[-1, 1]$.
Determine whether the set $\{f(x), \, g(x), \, h(x)\}$ is linearly dependent or linearly independent.
(The Ohio State University, Linear Algebra Midterm Exam Problem)
Let $V$ be a vector space over $\R$ and let $B$ be a basis of $V$.
Let $S=\{v_1, v_2, v_3\}$ be a set of vectors in $V$. If the coordinate vectors of these vectors with respect to the basis $B$ is given as follows, then find the dimension of $V$ and the dimension of the span of $S$.
\[[v_1]_B=\begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
0 \\
0 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, [v_2]_B=\begin{bmatrix}
0 \\
1 \\
0 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, [v_3]_B=\begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
1 \\
0 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}.\]
Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ complex matrix.
Let $p(x)=\det(xI-A)$ be the characteristic polynomial of $A$ and write it as
\[p(x)=x^n+a_{n-1}x^{n-1}+\cdots+a_1x+a_0,\]
where $a_i$ are real numbers.
Let $C$ be the companion matrix of the polynomial $p(x)$ given by
\[C=\begin{bmatrix}
0 & 0 & \dots & 0 &-a_0 \\
1 & 0 & \dots & 0 & -a_1 \\
0 & 1 & \dots & 0 & -a_2 \\
\vdots & & \ddots & & \vdots \\
0 & 0 & \dots & 1 & -a_{n-1}
\end{bmatrix}=
[\mathbf{e}_2, \mathbf{e}_3, \dots, \mathbf{e}_n, -\mathbf{a}],\]
where $\mathbf{e}_i$ is the unit vector in $\C^n$ whose $i$-th entry is $1$ and zero elsewhere, and the vector $\mathbf{a}$ is defined by
\[\mathbf{a}=\begin{bmatrix}
a_0 \\
a_1 \\
\vdots \\
a_{n-1}
\end{bmatrix}.\]
Then prove that the following two statements are equivalent.
There exists a vector $\mathbf{v}\in \C^n$ such that
\[\mathbf{v}, A\mathbf{v}, A^2\mathbf{v}, \dots, A^{n-1}\mathbf{v}\]
form a basis of $\C^n$.
There exists an invertible matrix $S$ such that $S^{-1}AS=C$.
(Namely, $A$ is similar to the companion matrix of its characteristic polynomial.)
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 $\mathbf{v}\in \calN(T)$.
(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 $V$ be a real vector space of all real sequences
\[(a_i)_{i=1}^{\infty}=(a_1, a_2, \dots).\]
Let $U$ be the subspace of $V$ consisting of all real sequences that satisfy the linear recurrence relation $a_{k+2}-5a_{k+1}+3a_{k}=0$ for $k=1, 2, \dots$.
(a) Let
\begin{align*}
\mathbf{u}_1&=(1, 0, -3, -15, -66, \dots)\\
\mathbf{u}_2&=(0, 1, 5, 22, 95, \dots)
\end{align*}
be vectors in $U$. Prove that $\{\mathbf{u}_1, \mathbf{u}_2\}$ is a basis of $U$ and conclude that the dimension of $U$ is $2$.
(b) Let $T$ be a map from $U$ to $U$ defined by
\[T\big((a_1, a_2, \dots)\big)=(a_2, a_3, \dots). \]
Verify that the map $T$ actually sends a vector $(a_i)_{i=1}^{\infty}\in V$ to a vector $T\big((a_i)_{i=1}^{\infty}\big)$ in $U$, and show that $T$ is a linear transformation from $U$ to $U$.
(c) With respect to the basis $\{\mathbf{u}_1, \mathbf{u}_2\}$ obtained in (a), find the matrix representation $A$ of the linear transformation $T:U \to U$ from (b).
Let $V$ be a subset of the vector space $\R^n$ consisting only of the zero vector of $\R^n$. Namely $V=\{\mathbf{0}\}$.
Then prove that $V$ is a subspace of $\R^n$.
Let $\mathbf{v}_1$ and $\mathbf{v}_2$ be $2$-dimensional vectors and let $A$ be a $2\times 2$ matrix.
(a) Show that if $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2$ are linearly dependent vectors, then the vectors $A\mathbf{v}_1, A\mathbf{v}_2$ are also linearly dependent.
(b) If $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2$ are linearly independent vectors, can we conclude that the vectors $A\mathbf{v}_1, A\mathbf{v}_2$ are also linearly independent?
(c) If $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2$ are linearly independent vectors and $A$ is nonsingular, then show that the vectors $A\mathbf{v}_1, A\mathbf{v}_2$ are also linearly independent.
(a) For what value(s) of $a$ is the following set $S$ linearly dependent?
\[ S=\left \{\,\begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
2 \\
3 \\
a
\end{bmatrix}, \begin{bmatrix}
a \\
0 \\
-1 \\
2
\end{bmatrix}, \begin{bmatrix}
0 \\
0 \\
a^2 \\
7
\end{bmatrix}, \begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
a \\
1 \\
1
\end{bmatrix}, \begin{bmatrix}
2 \\
-2 \\
3 \\
a^3
\end{bmatrix} \, \right\}.\]
(b) Let $\{\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2, \mathbf{v}_3\}$ be a set of nonzero vectors in $\R^m$ such that the dot product
\[\mathbf{v}_i\cdot \mathbf{v}_j=0\]
when $i\neq j$.
Prove that the set is linearly independent.
Determine whether the following set of vectors is linearly independent or linearly dependent. If the set is linearly dependent, express one vector in the set as a linear combination of the others.
\[\left\{\, \begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
0 \\
-1 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, \begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
2 \\
3 \\
4
\end{bmatrix}, \begin{bmatrix}
-1 \\
-2 \\
0 \\
1
\end{bmatrix},
\begin{bmatrix}
-2 \\
-2 \\
7 \\
11
\end{bmatrix}\, \right\}.\]
(a) Find a matrix $B$ in reduced row echelon form such that $B$ is row equivalent to the matrix $A$.
(b) Find a basis for the null space of $A$.
(c) Find a basis for the range of $A$ that consists of columns of $A$. For each columns, $A_j$ of $A$ that does not appear in the basis, express $A_j$ as a linear combination of the basis vectors.
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 $W$.
Determine whether the following is true or false. If it is true, then give a proof. If it is false, then give a counterexample.
Let $W_1$ and $W_2$ be subspaces of the vector space $\R^n$.
If $B_1$ and $B_2$ are bases for $W_1$ and $W_2$, respectively, then $B_1\cap B_2$ is a basis of the subspace $W_1\cap W_2$.
In this post, we explain how to diagonalize a matrix if it is diagonalizable.
As an example, we solve the following problem.
Diagonalize the matrix
\[A=\begin{bmatrix}
4 & -3 & -3 \\
3 &-2 &-3 \\
-1 & 1 & 2
\end{bmatrix}\]
by finding a nonsingular matrix $S$ and a diagonal matrix $D$ such that $S^{-1}AS=D$.
(Update 10/15/2017. A new example problem was added.) Read solution
Find the value(s) of $h$ for which the following set of vectors
\[\left \{ \mathbf{v}_1=\begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
0 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{v}_2=\begin{bmatrix}
h \\
1 \\
-h
\end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{v}_3=\begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
2h \\
3h+1
\end{bmatrix}\right\}\]
is linearly independent.
(Boston College, Linear Algebra Midterm Exam Sample Problem)
Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ matrix. Suppose that $\lambda_1, \lambda_2$ are distinct eigenvalues of the matrix $A$ and let $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2$ be eigenvectors corresponding to $\lambda_1, \lambda_2$, respectively.
Show that the vectors $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2$ are linearly independent.