Linear Algebra – Maths 2 – Formula sheet

System of n equations with m Augmented matrix Coefficient matrix

unknowns

Solving systems of linear equations – Method 1 (using reduction)

 Reduce the augmented matrix to row-echelon form (Gaussian Elimination). Then re-build the system and
use back substitution to find the solutions.
 Reduce the augmented matrix to reduced row-echelon (Gauss-Jordan Elimination). The last column of the
matrix represents the solutions of the system.

 Reduced row-echelon form - if it satisfies all four of the following conditions:

1. If there are any rows of all zeros then they are at the bottom of the matrix.
2. If a row does not consist of all zeros then its first non-zero entry (i.e. the left most
non-zero entry) is a 1. This 1 is called a leading 1.
3. In any two successive rows, neither of which consists of all zeroes, the leading 1
of the lower row is to the right of the leading 1 of the higher row.
4. If a column contains a leading 1 then all the other entries of that column are zero.

 Row-echelon form - if it satisfies items 1 – 3 of the reduced row-echelon form definition.

Solving systems of linear equations – Method 2 (using the inverse of a matrix)

 Given a system of linear equations Ax = b, where A is the coefficients matrix, if A is invertible, then the
system of equations has exactly one solution for every n×1 matrix b. The solution is: x = A-1b.
Matrix Operations
Matrix addition/subtraction: 𝐴𝐴 ± 𝐵𝐵 = �𝑎𝑎𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 ± 𝑏𝑏𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 �
Scalar multiplication: 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = �𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖𝑗𝑗 �
Matrix multiplication: If A is an n×p matrix and B is a p×m matrix then the product is a
new matrix with size n×m whose ijth entry is found by multiplying row i of A times
column j of B.
Transpose of a matrix
If A is an n×m matrix then AT , is an m× n matrix that is obtained by interchanging the rows and columns of A.

Matrix Properties
10. 𝐴𝐴0 = 𝐼𝐼
11. 𝐴𝐴𝑛𝑛 𝐴𝐴𝑚𝑚 = 𝐴𝐴𝑛𝑛+𝑚𝑚
12. (𝐴𝐴𝑛𝑛 )𝑚𝑚 = 𝐴𝐴𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛
Properties of the Transpose
Special Matrices
 Diagonal: any matrix in which the only potentially non-zero entries are on the main diagonal
 Symmetric: A = AT
 If A is a square matrix and we can find another matrix of the same size, say B, such that AB = BA = I then we
call A invertible and we say that B is an inverse of the matrix A. If we can’t find such a matrix B we call A a
singular matrix.

Finding the inverse – Option 1: using the identity matrix

Finding the inverse – Option 2: using the adjoint matrix

For 2 x 2 matrices, use this:

Minors and Cofactors

Adjoint of a matrix: adj(A)

Sign matrix for calculating the cofactors
Solving systems of linear equations – Method 3 (using determinants)

Properties of determinants

Vectors
Vector Spaces