Department of Mathematics, IIT Guwahati

MA 522: Linear Algebra

1. Use elementary row operations to reduce the following matrices to (a) row-echelon form (b) reduced
row-echelon form    
3 −2 −1 −2 4 7
   
(i) 
 2 −4 −6 
 (ii) 
 −3 6 .
10 
4 −3 −1 1 2 −3

2. Determine whether the following non-homogenous systems of equations are consistent, and if so, find
the solution set:

(i) x1 + 2x2 − 3x3 = 9 (ii) w + x + 2y + z = 1

2x1 − x2 − x3 = −2 w+x+y+z =0

4x1 − x2 + 6x3 = 0 x + y = −1

w+x+z =2

3. Do the following homogenous systems have any non-trivial solution? Find the solution set.

(i) x1 − 3x2 − 2x3 = 0 (ii) w + x + 3y + 4z = 0

− x1 + 2x2 + x3 = 0 5w + 6x + 7y + 8z = 0

2x1 + 4x2 + 6x3 = 0 9w + 10x + 11y + 12z = 0

4. For which values of k, if any, do the following system have (a) no solution (inconsistent system) (b)
unique solution (consistent) (c) infinitely many solutions (consistent):

(i) x1 − 2x2 + 3x3 = 2 (ii) x + y + kz = 1

x1 + x2 + x3 = k x + ky + z = 1

2x1 − x2 + 4x3 = k 2 kx + y + z = −2

5. Let A be a non-singular (i.e., invertible) n × n matrices. Then prove that

6. Let A be an n × n matrix. After k elementary operations, A is reduced to the identity matrix, and
let E1 , E2 , . . ., Ek be the elementary matrices corresponding to those row operations. Show that
A−1 = Ek . . . E2 E1 .

7. Find the inverse (if it exists) of each of the following matrices by Gauss-Jordan method:
 
  0 2 1 0
1 3 2 
 −1

  1 −1 1 
(i) 
 −1 1 3  (ii)  .
 
  1 0 3 1 
2 2 −1
 
0 2 0 −1
 8. Determine whether we obtain a vector space from R2 with the operations defined as follows:

(i) (x1 , x2 ) + (y1 , y2 ) = (x1 + y1 − 1, x2 + y2 ), k(x1 , x2 ) = (kx1 , kx2 )

(ii) (x1 , x2 ) + (y1 , y2 ) = (x1 + y1 , x2 + y2 ), k(x1 , x2 ) = (k 2 x1 , x2 )

9. Determine whether each of the following sets is a vector subspace, if addition and scalar multiplication
by scalars are defined in the usual way:

(i) V = {(x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) ∈ R4 | x3 = 0} (ii) V = {(x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) ∈ R4 | x4 ≥ 0}

(iii) V = {(x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) ∈ R4 | x1 + x3 = 0} (iv) V = {(x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) ∈ R4 | x21 + x3 = 2}

10. Can you express the vector (1, −2, 3) as a linear combination of the vectors (1, 1, 1), (1, −1, 0) and
(2, 3, 4)?

11. Determine whether the following sets of vectors are linearly dependent or independent:
       
      
 1 1 1 3 

 1   3   4 
  
        

  
 0   1   0   1  
(i)  0  ,  1  ,  2  (ii)  ,  , ,   .
             


 
 
  1   0   0   1  
5 0 −1
  
        

 
−1 1 −1 −1
 

12. Find the linear span of the following sets of vectors. Find also a basis and the dimension of the linear
span.        

1 1 1 3

 

      
        

       
1 3 4

 
 
        

       
        

       
        
0 1 0 1

       
       

      
 
       
(i) (ii) .
  
0 1 2
           
 ,  ,    ,  ,  ,  
               
1 0 0 1

      
        

               
      
        
−1
   
5 0

      
 
       

 
 
        

        
−1 −1 −1
 
1

        


 


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