# Tagged: symmetric matrix

## Problem 697

Find all $2\times 2$ symmetric matrices $A$ satisfying $A\begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ -1 \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 2 \\ 3 \end{bmatrix}$? Express your solution using free variable(s).

## Problem 647

Recall that a matrix $A$ is symmetric if $A^\trans = A$, where $A^\trans$ is the transpose of $A$.

Is it true that if $A$ is a symmetric matrix and in reduced row echelon form, then $A$ is diagonal? If so, prove it.

Otherwise, provide a counterexample.

## Problem 640

Let $\mathbf{v}$ be an $n \times 1$ column vector.

Prove that $\mathbf{v} \mathbf{v}^\trans$ is a symmetric matrix.

## Problem 609

Let $A$ be a $2\times 2$ real symmetric matrix.
Prove that all the eigenvalues of $A$ are real numbers by considering the characteristic polynomial of $A$.

## Problem 599

Let $A$ be a real symmetric matrix whose diagonal entries are all positive real numbers.

Is it true that the all of the diagonal entries of the inverse matrix $A^{-1}$ are also positive?
If so, prove it. Otherwise, give a counterexample.

## Problem 586

Let $V$ be the vector space over $\R$ of all real $2\times 2$ matrices.
Let $W$ be the subset of $V$ consisting of all symmetric matrices.

(a) Prove that $W$ is a subspace of $V$.

(b) Find a basis of $W$.

(c) Determine the dimension of $W$.

## 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 564

Let $A$ and $B$ be $n\times n$ skew-symmetric matrices. Namely $A^{\trans}=-A$ and $B^{\trans}=-B$.

(a) Prove that $A+B$ is skew-symmetric.

(b) Prove that $cA$ is skew-symmetric for any scalar $c$.

(c) Let $P$ be an $m\times n$ matrix. Prove that $P^{\trans}AP$ is skew-symmetric.

(d) Suppose that $A$ is real skew-symmetric. Prove that $iA$ is an Hermitian matrix.

(e) Prove that if $AB=-BA$, then $AB$ is a skew-symmetric matrix.

(f) Let $\mathbf{v}$ be an $n$-dimensional column vecotor. Prove that $\mathbf{v}^{\trans}A\mathbf{v}=0$.

(g) Suppose that $A$ is a real skew-symmetric matrix and $A^2\mathbf{v}=\mathbf{0}$ for some vector $\mathbf{v}\in \R^n$. Then prove that $A\mathbf{v}=\mathbf{0}$.

## Problem 556

Let $\mathbf{v}$ be a nonzero vector in $\R^n$.
Then the dot product $\mathbf{v}\cdot \mathbf{v}=\mathbf{v}^{\trans}\mathbf{v}\neq 0$.
Set $a:=\frac{2}{\mathbf{v}^{\trans}\mathbf{v}}$ and define the $n\times n$ matrix $A$ by
$A=I-a\mathbf{v}\mathbf{v}^{\trans},$ where $I$ is the $n\times n$ identity matrix.

Prove that $A$ is a symmetric matrix and $AA=I$.
Conclude that the inverse matrix is $A^{-1}=A$.

## Problem 538

(a) Suppose that $A$ is an $n\times n$ real symmetric positive definite matrix.
Prove that
$\langle \mathbf{x}, \mathbf{y}\rangle:=\mathbf{x}^{\trans}A\mathbf{y}$ defines an inner product on the vector space $\R^n$.

(b) Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ real matrix. Suppose that
$\langle \mathbf{x}, \mathbf{y}\rangle:=\mathbf{x}^{\trans}A\mathbf{y}$ defines an inner product on the vector space $\R^n$.

Prove that $A$ is symmetric and positive definite.

## Problem 514

Prove that a positive definite matrix has a unique positive definite square root.

## 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)

## Problem 451

Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ real symmetric matrix.
Prove that there exists an eigenvalue $\lambda$ of $A$ such that for any vector $\mathbf{v}\in \R^n$, we have the inequality
$\mathbf{v}\cdot A\mathbf{v} \leq \lambda \|\mathbf{v}\|^2.$

## Problem 447

Let $A$ be a square matrix such that
$A^{\trans}A=A,$ where $A^{\trans}$ is the transpose matrix of $A$.
Prove that $A$ is idempotent, that is, $A^2=A$. Also, prove that $A$ is a symmetric matrix.

## Problem 405

Recall that a complex matrix is called Hermitian if $A^*=A$, where $A^*=\bar{A}^{\trans}$.
Prove that every Hermitian matrix $A$ can be written as the sum
$A=B+iC,$ where $B$ is a real symmetric matrix and $C$ is a real skew-symmetric matrix.

## Problem 397

Suppose $A$ is a positive definite symmetric $n\times n$ matrix.

(a) Prove that $A$ is invertible.

(b) Prove that $A^{-1}$ is symmetric.

(c) Prove that $A^{-1}$ is positive-definite.

(MIT, Linear Algebra Exam Problem)

## Problem 396

A real symmetric $n \times n$ matrix $A$ is called positive definite if
$\mathbf{x}^{\trans}A\mathbf{x}>0$ for all nonzero vectors $\mathbf{x}$ in $\R^n$.

(a) Prove that the eigenvalues of a real symmetric positive-definite matrix $A$ are all positive.

(b) Prove that if eigenvalues of a real symmetric matrix $A$ are all positive, then $A$ is positive-definite.

## Problem 385

Let
$A=\begin{bmatrix} 2 & -1 & -1 \\ -1 &2 &-1 \\ -1 & -1 & 2 \end{bmatrix}.$ Determine whether the matrix $A$ is diagonalizable. If it is diagonalizable, then diagonalize $A$.
That is, find a nonsingular matrix $S$ and a diagonal matrix $D$ such that $S^{-1}AS=D$.

## Problem 210

Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ matrix with real number entries.

Show that if $A$ is diagonalizable by an orthogonal matrix, then $A$ is a symmetric matrix.

## Problem 202

Show that eigenvalues of a Hermitian matrix $A$ are real numbers.

(The Ohio State University Linear Algebra Exam Problem)