MTL 104: LINEAR ALGEBRA

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
MAJOR
MAX. MARKS 50

All questions carry equal marks. You may assume everything done in class.
For most of the problems just follow the definition and use the standard results.

(1) (A) Let V be the set of all real numbers. Define an operation of vector
addition ⊕ by x ⊕ y = the maximum of x and y for all x, y ∈ V . Define
an operation of scalar multiplication ⊗ by α ⊗ x = αx for all α ∈ R and
x∈V.
Prove or disprove: V under the defined vector addition and scalar
multiplication is a vector space.

(B) Let M be the plane x + y + z = 0 and N be the line x − 1 = y/2 =

z + 2 ∈ R3 .
Prove or disprove: R3 is not the direct sum of M and N . [5+5 marks]

(2) (A) Let w = (1, 1, 0, 0), x = (1, 0, 1, 0), y = (0, 0, 1, 1), and z = (0, 1, 0, 1) ∈
R4 .
(a) Show that the vectors w, x, y, z do NOT span R4 .
(b) Show that the vectors w, x, y, z are linearly dependent.
(c) Find u ∈ R4 such that {w, x, y, u} forms a basis for R4 .

(B) Let a, b, and c be distinct real numbers. Use a suitable theory done in
class to give a careful proof that the vectors (1, 1, 1), (a, b, c), and (a2 , b2 , c2 )
form a linearly independent subset of R3 . [4+6 marks]

(3) A linear operator E on a vector space V is called a projection if E 2 = E.

(A) Let P be the plane in R3 whose equation is x − z = 0 and L be
the line whose equations are y = 0 and x = z/2. Explain carefully the
projection of R3 along L onto P .

(B) Let Pn be the space of polynomials of degree strictly less than n and
D be the differentiation operator on Pn . Then
(a) the only eigenvalue of D is ?
(b) the corresponding eigenspace is the span of ?
(c) the algebraic multiplicity of this eigen value is ?
and
(d) the geometric multiplicity of this eigen value is ? [5+5 marks]

(4) Let T be an operator on a finite dimensional vector space V . Suppose that

the minimal polynomial for T factors completely into linear factors, i.e.

mT (x) = (x − λ1 )r1 . . . (x − λk )rk

where λ1 , . . . , λk are the (distinct) eigenvalues of T .
Then T = D + N where D is diagonalizable and N is nilpotent.
 
3 1 −1
(A) Consider the matrix M =  2 2 −1 
2 2 0
1
 acting on the inner product space R3 given the standard inner product.
(i) Find the eigenvalues of A. Determine the minimal polynomial of A.
(ii) Find the eigenspace associated with each eigenvalue of A. Do the
eigenvectors of A span R3 ? What can you conclude from this?
(iii) Let W be an eigenspace space corresponding to an eigenvalue of A.
Determine the projection E on W along its orthogonal complement W ⊥ .

 the operator on R whose matrix representation is A =

3
 (B) Let T be
2 0 −2
 0 0 2 
0 2 0
Determine D and N such that T = D + N by expressing D and N as
[5 + 5 marks] matrices in the standard basis on R3 .

(5) (A) Prove that if V is a complex inner product space and T ∈ L(V ) satisfies
< T z, z >= 0 for all z ∈ V , then T = 0.

(B) Let M and N be subspaces of an inner product space. Prove that

(M + N )⊥ = M ⊥ ∩ N ⊥ .
[5 + 5 marks]