IIT – JAM MATH CRASH COURSE

(IIT - JAM | GATE | NET | M.Sc. ENTRANCE)

LINEAR ALGEBRA
Lecture - 12

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 PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTION
VECTOR SPACES AND SUBSPACES
Q.1.Which of the following sets is a basis for the subspace [JAM 2007]
𝑥 𝑦
𝑊= : 𝑥 + 2𝑦 + 𝑡 = 0, 𝑦 + 𝑡 = 0 of the vector space of all real 2 × 2
0 𝑡
matrices?
1 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 1 −1
(a) , , (b) ,
0 0 0 0 0 1 0 −1 0 1
−1 1 1 −1
(c) (d)
2 −1 0 1

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Q.2.Let V be the vector space of all 6 × 6 real matrices over the field ℝ. Then the
dimension of the subspace of V consisting of all symmetric matrices is
(a) 15 (b) 18 (c) 21 (d) 35 [JAM 2009]

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Q.3. Consider the following subspace of ℝ3 :
𝑊 = { 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 ∈ ℝ3 |2𝑥 + 2𝑦 + 𝑧 = 0, 3𝑥 + 3𝑦 − 2𝑧 = 0, 𝑥 + 𝑦 − 3𝑧 = 0}The
dimension of W is [JAM 2012]
(a) 0 (b) 1 (c) 2 (d) 3

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Q.4. Let V be the vector space of all 2 × 2 matrices over ℝ. Consider the subspaces
𝑎 −𝑎 𝑎 𝑏
𝑊1 = : 𝑎, 𝑐, 𝑑 ∈ ℝ and 𝑊2 = : 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑑 ∈ ℝ
𝑐 𝑑 −𝑎 𝑑
If 𝑚 = dim 𝑊1 ∩ 𝑊2 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛 = dim 𝑊1 + 𝑊2 , then the pair (𝑚, 𝑛) is
[JAM 2013]
(a) (2,3) (b) (2,4) (c) (3,4) (d) (1,3)

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Q.5. Which one of the following is a subspace of the vector space ℝ3 ?
(a) {(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) ∈ ℝ3 : 𝑥 + 2𝑦 = 0, 2𝑥 + 3𝑧 = 0}
(b) 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 ∈ ℝ3 : 2𝑥 + 3𝑦 + 4𝑧 − 3 = 0, 𝑧 = 0
(c) {(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) ∈ ℝ3 : 𝑥 ≥ 0, 𝑦 ≥ 0}
(d) {(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) ∈ ℝ3 : 𝑥 − 1 = 0, 𝑦 = 0} [JAM 2014]

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Q.6.Consider the subspace
𝑊 = {(𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … . . , 𝑥10 ) ∈ ℝ10 : 𝑥𝑛 = 𝑥𝑛−1 + 𝑥𝑛−2 for 3 ≤ 𝑛 ≤ 10} of the vector
space ℝ10 . The dimension of W is [JAM 2014]
(a) 2 (b) 3 (c) 9 (d) 10

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Q.7. If (𝑣1 , 𝑣2 , 𝑣3 ) is a linearly independent set of vectors in a vector space over ℝ,
then which one of the following sets is also linearly independent ?
(a){𝑣1 + 𝑣2 + 𝑣3 , 2𝑣1 + 𝑣2 + 3𝑣3 , 5𝑣1 + 4𝑣2 }
(b) 𝑣1 − 𝑣2 , 𝑣2 − 𝑣3 , 𝑣3 − 𝑣1
(c) {𝑣1 + 𝑣2 − 𝑣3 , 𝑣2 + 𝑣3 − 𝑣1 , 𝑣3 + 𝑣1 − 𝑣2 , 𝑣1 + 𝑣2 + 𝑣3 }
(d){𝑣1 + 𝑣2 , 𝑣2 + 2𝑣3 , 𝑣3 + 3𝑣1 } [JAM 2018]

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 𝑎11 𝑎12
Q.8. Let V be the set of 2 × 2 matrices 𝑎 with complex entries such that
21 𝑎22
𝑎11 + 𝑎22 = 0. Let W be the set of matrices in V with 𝑎12 + 𝑎ത21 = 0. Then ,
under usual matrix addition and scalar multiplication, which of the following is
(are) true ?
(a) V is a vector space over ℂ (b) W is a vector space over ℂ
(c) V is a vector space over ℝ (d) W is a vector space over ℝ [JAM 2015]

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Q.9. Consider the set
𝑥
𝑉 = 𝑦 ∈ ℝ3 |𝛼𝑥 + 𝛽𝑦 + 𝑧 = 𝛾, 𝛼, 𝛽, 𝛾 ∈ ℝ} For which of the following choice(s)
𝑧
the set V becomes a two dimensional subspace of ℝ3 over ℝ?
(a) 𝛼 = 0, 𝛽 = 1, 𝛾 = 0 (b) 𝛼 = 0, 𝛽 = 1, 𝛾 = 1
(c) 𝛼 = 1, 𝛽 = 0, 𝛾 = 0 (d) 𝛼 = 1, 𝛽 = 1, 𝛾 = 0 [JAM 2016]

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 𝑥 −𝑥 0 −1 1 −1
Q.10. If the set , , is linearly dependent in the vector
−1 0 𝑥 𝑥 1 0
space of all 2 × 2 matrices with real entries, then x is equal to _________.
[JAM 2015]

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Q.11. Let 𝑀2 (ℝ) be the vector space of 2 × 2 real matrices. Let V be a subspace of
𝑀2 (ℝ) defined by
0 2 0 2
𝑉 = 𝐴 ∈ 𝑀2 ℝ : 𝐴 = 𝐴 Then the dimension of V is _______.
3 1 3 1
[JAM 2015]

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 𝑥1
Q.12. Let 𝑥 = 𝑥2 ∈ ℝ3 be a non-zero vector and
𝑥3
𝑥 𝑥𝑇
𝐴= . Then the dimension of the vector space {𝑦 ∈ ℝ3 |𝐴𝑦 = 0} over ℝ is
𝑥𝑇𝑥
________. [JAM 2016]

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Q.13. Let 𝑊1 be the real vector space of all 5 × 2 matrices such that the sum of the
entries in each row is zero. Let 𝑊2 be the real vector space of all 5 × 2 matrices
such that sum of the entries in each column is zero. Then dimension of the space
𝑊1 ∩ 𝑊2 is _______. [JAM 2018]

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Q.14. The dimension of the vector space of all symmetric matrices of order 𝑛 ×
𝑛(𝑛 ≥ 2) with real entries and trace equal to zero is
(𝑛2 −𝑛) (𝑛2 −2𝑛)
(a) − 1 (b) − 1
2 2
(𝑛2 +𝑛) (𝑛2 +2𝑛)
(c) − 1 (d) − 1 [NET 2011]
2 2

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Q.15. Let n be a positive integer and let 𝐻𝑛 be the space of all 𝑛 × 𝑛 matrices 𝐴 =
𝑎𝑖𝑗 with entries in ℝ satisfying 𝑎𝑖𝑗 = 𝑎𝑟𝑠 whenever 𝑖 + 𝑗 = 𝑟 + 𝑠(𝑖, 𝑗, 𝑟, 𝑠 =
1, … . , 𝑛). Then the dimension of 𝐻𝑛 , as a vector space over ℝ, is
(a) 𝑛2 (b) 𝑛2 − 𝑛 + 1
(c) 2𝑛 + 1 (d) 2𝑛 − 1 [NET Dec. 2011]

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Q.16. The dimension of the vector space of all symmetric murices 𝐴 = (𝑎𝑗𝑘 ) of
order 𝑛 × 𝑛(𝑛 ≥ 2) with real entries, 𝑎11 = 0 and trace zero is
(𝑛2 +𝑛−4) (𝑛2 −𝑛+4)
(a) (b)
2 2
(𝑛2 +𝑛−3) (𝑛2 −𝑛+3)
(c) (d) [NET June 2012]
2 2

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 ℤ
Q.17. Let V be a 3-dimensional vector space over the field 𝔽3 = of 3 elements.
3ℤ
The number of distinct 1-dimensional subspaces of V is
(a) 13 (b) 26 (c) 9 (d) 15 [NET Dec. 2012]

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Q.18. Consider the following row vectors:
𝛼1 1,1,0,1,0,0 , 𝛼2 1,1,0,0,1,0 ,
𝛼3 = 1,1,0,0,0,1 , 𝛼4 = 1,0,1,1,0,0 ,
𝛼5 = 1,0,1,0,1,0 , 𝛼6 = (1,0,1,0,0,1)
The dimension of the vector space spanned by these row vectors is
(a) 6 (b) 5 (c) 4 (d) 3 [NET Dec. 2013]

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Q.19. Which of the following subsets of ℝ4 is a basis of ℝ4 ?
𝐵1 = 1,0,0,0 , 1,1,0,0 , 1,1,1,0 , 1,1,1,1 𝐵2
= 1,0,0,0 , 1,2,0,0 , 1,2,3,0 , 1,2,3,4
𝐵3 = 1,2,0,0 , 0,0,1,1 , 2,1,0,0 , −5,5,0,0
(a) 𝐵1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐵2 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝐵3 (b) 𝐵1 , 𝐵2 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐵3
(c) 𝐵1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐵3 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝐵2 (d) 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝐵1 [NET Dec 2016]

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Q.20. Which of the following sets of functions from ℝ 𝑡𝑜 ℝ is a vector space over
ℝ?

𝑆1 = {𝑓| lim 𝑓 𝑥 = 0}
𝑥→3

𝑆2 = {𝑔| lim 𝑔 𝑥 = 1}
𝑥→3

𝑆3 = {ℎ| lim ℎ 𝑥 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡}

𝑥→3

(a) Only 𝑆1 (b) 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑆2

(c) 𝑆1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆3 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑆2 (d) All the three are vector spaces
[NET Dec 2016]

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 ANSWER KEY
Q ANS Q ANS Q ANS Q ANS
1 D 6 A 11 2 16 A
2 C 7 D 12 2 17 A
3 B 8 A,C,D 13 4 18 C
4 B 9 A,C,D 14 C 19 A
5 A 10 -1 15 D 20 C

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