MATH 235, Winter 2017

Assignment 1
Due: Wednesday, January 18th

Submission Guidelines:
• Assignments are due at 4:30pm on the due date, and must be submitted to dropbox
13 (slots 5–10), outside MC 4067: Assignments received late, or submitted to the
wrong dropbox/slot will receive zero marks.
• For your privacy, it is recommended that the first page of your assignment be a cover
page. The cover page should include only the following information: your name, course
(“MATH 235”), section, and assignment number. Write your full name and student
ID number on the second page of your assignment. If you include a cover page, your
assignment mark will be written on the second page.
• You answers need to be fully justified, unless specified otherwise. Always remember
the WHAT-WHY-HOW rule, namely explain in full detail what you are doing, why
are you doing it, and how are you doing it. Credit will not be given for dry yes/no or
numerical answers.

Collaboration policies:
The problems on this assignment are divided into two parts, which are governed by different
policies and expectations.

Part A: Problems to solve in groups

• What’s allowed: For this section, you may collaborate on the problems freely with
your classmates. You are encouraged to organize yourselves into groups of 2–4 people
(with more, you’re better off dividing up into two groups) and figure out how to solve
the problems as a group. You should approach this with a “nobody gets left behind”
policy. This means you should not move on until everybody in the group understands
the problem and feels that they are able to write up a solution. You may share ideas
and rough notes freely. Talk to each other. Ask questions. You may also ask one
of your classmates to look over your solutions and give you feedback after both of
you have written up your solutions, and you may use that feedback to improve your
solutions.
• What’s not allowed: You are still expected to write solutions yourself. You may not
copy or paraphrase your someone else’s solutions, and for this reason you should never
look at someone else’s solutions until after you have written up your own solutions.
You are not allowed to use solutions from previous offerings of this course or from
another linear algebra course as a reference for solving these problems. You may not
post this assignment or any part of this assignment online. You may not solicit help
from an online source that is not affiliated with the course, or any anonymous source.

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 You are required to acknowledge everybody you’ve worked with on these problems,
regardless of whether you assisted them, or they assisted you.
• Why you should get behind this: Group work can be extremely valuable if everyone
takes the “nobody gets left behind policy” seriously. On the one hand, if you don’t
fully understand something, it’s obviously helpful to have someone trying to explain
it. On the other, the best way to make sure you understand something really well is
to be forced to explain it clearly to someone else. It’s a win-win situation.
• Note: Not every group dynamic works well, and not everybody likes working in groups.
It is not required that you do so. You may always choose to work on problems indi-
vidually, if you prefer this option for any reason.

Part B: Problems to solve individually

• What’s allowed: For this section you are expected to work on the problems individually.
Treat these questions like you’re doing an open book test. You may consult your notes,
and the course text, or different linear algebra textbook if you happen to have that
one you prefer. You may ask for help in the tutorial centre or office hours. If someone
asks you for help with one of these problem, you may attempt to find a different but
related problem and work through it together, or you can give general hints such as
“look at Example X in the textbook”, or “try using Theorem Y”. You may discuss the
problems freely after you have handed in your homework.
• What’s not allowed: If you discuss these problems with anybody else, you may not
write anything down, or record the discussion in any other way. You may not share
rough notes. You may not look at anyone else’s solutions or rough work, and you may
not show your solutions or rough work to another student. And of course, you are not
allowed to do any of the things that aren’t allowed for Part A.
• Why you should get behind this: The most important way to learn things is by prac-
ticing them on your own, and figuring them out for yourself. Also known as “the hard
way”. Unfortunately there’s no substitute for it. If you want the course material to
sink in, you need to do this. Also, since you can’t collaborate on the exam, it would
be pretty unwise to try to go into the exam without practicing this skill.

Regrade policy:
If you have any complaints about the marking of assignments, then you should first check
your solutions against the posted solutions. If you still believe there is a marking error and
you would like your assignment regraded, you should write a short note (on a separate sheet
of paper) explaining which problem(s) you think were graded incorrectly, and your reasons
why you believe the grading was incorrect. (Example: “I did problem 2 a different way from
the solution, and I only got 1/5. I believe my method is correct because there is a similar
example in the text.”) Attach the note to your assignment, and bring it to your graduate TA
within two weeks of the assignment’s return. Requests for a regrade without accompanying
written notes will be automatically disregarded.

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MATH 235 ASSIGNMENT 1 Due: January 18th

Part A: Problems to solve in groups  

A
1. (a) Compute the RREF of the 4 × 5 matrix [A | ~b] and the 5 × 4 matrix ~ T , where
b
   
1 0 2 −1 −2
−1 −1 −1 0  ~b = −1 .
  
A= and
0 1 −1 1  3
−1 1 −3 1 4

(b) Using your answer to part (a) decide whether or not ~b ∈ Col(A).
(c) Using your answer to part (a) decide whether or not ~b ∈ Row(A).
2. Determine whether or not there there exists a linear mapping L with the following
properties. If so, what is it? If not, why not?
(a) L : P2 (R) → M2×2 (R)
    
0 1 2 0 0 2 1 0
L(1 + x) = , L(x + x ) = , L(1 + x + x ) = .
0 0 1 0 0 1

(b) L : P2 (R) → R2
    

1 2 2 2 1
L(1 + x) = , L(x + x ) = , L(1 − x ) = .
1 1 −1

3. Suppose A and B are m × n matrices such that Col(A) ⊆ Col(B).

(a) Prove that there exists an n × n matrix C such that A = BC.
(b) Which of the following statements must also be true? Prove it or give a coun-
terexample.
(i) Null(A) ⊆ Null(B)
(ii) Null(B) ⊆ Null(A)
(iii) Null(AT ) ⊆ Null(B T )
(iv) Null(B T ) ⊆ Null(AT )
4. Acknowledgements. List the names of everyone with whom you discussed the prob-
lems in Part A, and list any additional sources of help you received. If you did not
discuss the problems with anyone, say so here.
Part B: Problems to solve individually
5. Compute a basis for each of the four fundamental subspaces of the matrix
 
1 −2 1 0 2
 2 −4 1 3 3
A= .
0 0 −1 1 −1
−1 2 0 −1 −1

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6. Let L : V → W be a linear mapping, and ~v1 , . . . , ~vk ∈ V.

(a) If {L(~v1 ), . . . , L(~vk )} is linearly independent in W, prove that {~v1 , . . . , ~vk } is lin-
early independent in V.
(b) Show that this does not work the other way around. Give an example where
{~v1 , . . . , ~vk } is linearly independent in V, but {L(~v1 ), . . . , L(~vk )} is linearly de-
pendent in W,