Practice Questions

1. Suppose a is an n-vector. Show that if z = (a – avg(a))/Std(a), then avg(z) = 0 and Std(z) = 1.

2. Prove ∥ 𝑎̃ ∥2 =∥ 𝑎 ∥2 − 𝑛. 𝑎𝑣𝑔(𝑎)2 where a is an n vector and 𝑎̃ is the demeaned vector of a.
3. Given a point P with coordinates (1 4) and the vector v = [2 1]T, find the equation of the line that
goes through P and has the direction specified by the vector v. Show whether the point at (-3 2)
is on the line or not? Find the distance from the point (5 10) to the nearest point to the line.
4. Show that (b - projab) is orthogonal to projab.
5. Let u = (1, -3, 4) and v = (3, 4, 7) be two vectors in R3. Find
(i) a vector w orthogonal to v
(ii) distance between the points represented by the vectors u and v
(iii) the vector projvu, i.e., the projection of u onto v
(iv) perpendicular distance from the point represented by the vector u to the line
through vector v.
6. Suppose we have points at the locations: x1=(1,3), x2=(4,7), x3=(2,9), x4=(2,2), x5=(3,6). Suppose
the k-means algorithm (k = 2) initially picks centroids at (1,4) and (4,4).
(i) Which points will be assigned to each of the centroids?
(ii) What will be the location of the new centers after 1 iteration?
(iii) What is the value of J initially and after 1 iteration?
7. Show for two matrices A (mxn)and B (nxp), the product
AB = A[b1 b2 b3 … bp] = [A b1 Ab2 Ab3 … Abp], where bi‘s are the column vectors of B
8. Let u1 = [2 4]T and u2 = [1 3]T. How can we show that any vector w in R2 can be written as a linear
combination of u1 and u2, (w = c1u1 + c2u2 x where c1 and c2 are scalars)? We say w is in the span
of { u1, u2,} written as span({u1, u2}). Show that, this is not however true for vectors v1 = [2 4]T
and v2 = [1 2]T. Which vectors in R2 can be represented by the linear combination of the vectors
v1 and v2? [hint: w = c1u1 + c2u2 is a system of linear equations with c1 and c2 being the unknown
variables.]
9. Let u1 = [1 0 1]T and u2 = [1 1 1]T . Can all vectors in R3 be represented as a linear combination of
these two vectors? Given an example of a vector in R3 that cannot be represented in this way.
10. Suppose a vector y is perpendicular to vectors u1, u2, … , un. Show that y is also perpendicular to
all vectors w that are linear combinations of u1, u2, … , un.