Math 214 Fall 2018 Written Homework 2

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NAME:

SECTION NUMBER:

INSTRUCTOR:
1. (10 points) Let A be the matrix
 
1 a 2
A =  2 1 − a 1 ,
−1 1 3

where a is a scalar.
(a) (5 points) For what values of a does the matrix A have rank less than 3? What is
its rank in those cases?

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(b) (5 points) Find a value of the scalar a and a vector ~b ∈ R3 such that the equation

A~x = ~b
has no solutions. Explain your answer.

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2. (10 points) Your are given that L1 , L2 and L3 are three linear transformations:
L1 : R2 → R2 , L2 : R2 → R2 , L3 : R2 → R2 .
You are also given that one of them is a rotation, one is a reflection about a line (passing
through the origin) and one is an orthogonal projection. Being the resident linear algebra
detective, it is your job to find out which one is which, and deduce as much about them
as possible.
(a) (2 points) You hear that
     
75 75 100
L2 = L3 = .
100 100 75
What can you infer at this point and why?

(b) (4 points) You find out next that

   
100 75
L2 = .
75 100
What can you infer now and why? Be as detailed as is possible.

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(c) (4 points) Finally, you find out that
   
75 96
L1 = .
100 72
Using this and all of the information above, find
 
1
(L1 L3 ) .
0

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3. (10 points) TRUE or FALSE? Justify your answers.
(a) (5 points) There exists a 4 × 3 matrix A of rank 3 such that
 
  1
1 2
A 1 = 
3 .

1
4

(b) (5 points) There exists a 3 × 4 matrix A of rank 2 such that

 
1  
2 1
A  = 1 .
3
1
4

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