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 $P_2$ 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*}
p_1(x)&=-1+x+2x^2, \quad p_2(x)=x+3x^2\\
p_3(x)&=1+2x+8x^2, \quad p_4(x)=1+x+x^2.
\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)
(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)
Let $W=C^{\infty}(\R)$ be the vector space of all $C^{\infty}$ real-valued functions (smooth function, differentiable for all degrees of differentiation).
Let $V$ be the vector space of all linear transformations from $W$ to $W$.
The addition and the scalar multiplication of $V$ are given by those of linear transformations.
Let $T_1, T_2, T_3$ be the elements in $V$ defined by
\begin{align*}
T_1\left(\, f(x) \,\right)&=\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x}f(x)\\[6pt]
T_2\left(\, f(x) \,\right)&=\frac{\mathrm{d}^2}{\mathrm{d}x^2}f(x)\\[6pt]
T_3\left(\, f(x) \,\right)&=\int_{0}^x \! f(t)\,\mathrm{d}t.
\end{align*}
Then determine whether the set $\{T_1, T_2, T_3\}$ are linearly independent or linearly dependent.
Let $P_n$ be the vector space of all polynomials with real coefficients of degree $n$ or less.
Consider the differentiation linear transformation $T: P_n\to P_n$ defined by
\[T\left(\, f(x) \,\right)=\frac{d}{dx}f(x).\]
(a) Consider the case $n=2$. Let $B=\{1, x, x^2\}$ be a basis of $P_2$. Find the matrix representation $A$ of the linear transformation $T$ with respect to the basis $B$.
(b) Compute $A^3$, where $A$ is the matrix obtained in part (a).
(c) If you computed $A^3$ in part (b) directly, then is there any theoretical explanation of your result?
(d) Now we consider the general case. Let $B$ be any basis of the vector space of $P_n$ and let $A$ be the matrix representation of the linear transformation $T$ with respect to the basis $B$.
Prove that without any calculation that the matrix $A$ is nilpotent.
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 $\{\cos x, \sin x\}$.
Let $P_3$ be the vector space of polynomials of degree $3$ or less with real coefficients.
(a) Prove that the differentiation is a linear transformation. That is, prove that the map $T:P_3 \to P_3$ defined by
\[T\left(\, f(x) \,\right)=\frac{d}{dx} f(x)\]
for any $f(x)\in P_3$ is a linear transformation.
(b) Let $B=\{1, x, x^2, x^3\}$ be a basis of $P_3$. With respect to the basis $B$, find the matrix representation of the linear transformation $T$ in part (a).
Let $V$ be a vector space over a field $K$.
If $W_1$ and $W_2$ are subspaces of $V$, then prove that the subset
\[W_1+W_2:=\{\mathbf{x}+\mathbf{y} \mid \mathbf{x}\in W_1, \mathbf{y}\in W_2\}\]
is a subspace of the vector space $V$.
Let $T:\R^3 \to \R^3$ be a linear transformation and suppose that its matrix representation with respect to the standard basis is given by the matrix
\[A=\begin{bmatrix}
1 & 0 & 2 \\
0 &3 &0 \\
4 & 0 & 5
\end{bmatrix}.\]
(a) Prove that the linear transformation $T$ sends points on the $x$-$z$ plane to points on the $x$-$z$ plane.
(b) Prove that the restriction of $T$ on the $x$-$z$ plane is a linear transformation.
(c) Find the matrix representation of the linear transformation obtained in part (b) with respect to the standard basis
\[\left\{\, \begin{bmatrix}
1 \\
0 \\
0
\end{bmatrix}, \begin{bmatrix}
0 \\
0 \\
1
\end{bmatrix} \,\right\}\]
of the $x$-$z$ plane.
Let $W_1, W_2$ be subspaces of a vector space $V$. Then prove that $W_1 \cup W_2$ is a subspace of $V$ if and only if $W_1 \subset W_2$ or $W_2 \subset W_1$.
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 $A$.
Let $n>1$ be a positive integer. Let $V=M_{n\times n}(\C)$ be the vector space over the complex numbers $\C$ consisting of all complex $n\times n$ matrices. The dimension of $V$ is $n^2$.
Let $A \in V$ and consider the set
\[S_A=\{I=A^0, A, A^2, \dots, A^{n^2-1}\}\]
of $n^2$ elements.
Prove that the set $S_A$ cannot be a basis of the vector space $V$ for any $A\in V$.
Let $S$ be the subset of $\R^4$ consisting of vectors $\begin{bmatrix}
x \\
y \\
z \\
w
\end{bmatrix}$ satisfying
\[2x+3y+5z+7w=0.\]
Then prove that the set $S$ is a subspace of $\R^4$.
(Linear Algebra Exam Problem, The Ohio State University)