Math 1B03 - Assignment 4

Due: Nov 7th, 11:59 pm (EDT)

Please submit scans / photographs of your full solutions (if handwritten) or pdfs (if typed) to
the Crowdmark dropbox by the above date. You are welcome to discuss these problems with your
classmates, but please include an acknowledgement naming any classmate who helped you and
citing any sources you consulted.

1. Let A = (x1 , y1 ), B = (x2 , y2 ), and C = (x3 , y3 ) be distinct points on the plane. Show that
the area of the triangle ABC is given by
 
x1 y1 1
1
areaABC = det x2 y2 1
 
2
x3 y3 1

2. Consider a consistent linear system with 8 equations and 8 unknowns. How many arithmetic
operations (addition and multiplication) does one need to solve the system using Cramer’s
rule?
Hint: Count the number of determinants one must compute for Cramer’s rule and the number
of operations
" #one needs to compute each determinant. For example, the determinant of the
a b
matrix is ad − bc, which takes 3 arithmetic operations.
c d
3. Let V be the set of column vectors of the form
  
 x
 

V = y  : x, y, z ∈ R, x > 0
 
 
z
 

with vector addition defined by

     
x t xt
     3
y  + r = (y + r3 )1/3 


z s z+s+1
and scalar multiplication defined by
   
x xk
k y  =  k 1/3 y  .
   

z kz + k − 1
Verify that V is a vector space.

1
4. If V and W are sets, then their union V ∪ W is the set consisting of all elements that are in
V or W (or in both V and W ). The intersection of V and W is the set V ∩ W consisting of
all elements that are in both V and W .
Let V and W be two subspaces of Rn .

a) Show that the intersection of V and W is also a subspace of Rn .

b) Is the same true for union of two subspaces of Rn ? If yes, prove it. Otherwise provide a
counterexample.
   
x1 y1
 x2   y2 
   
5. We say two vectors x =  ..  and y =  ..  are orthogonal if
  
 .  .
xn yn

x1 y1 + x2 y2 + ... + xn yn = 0.

Let A be given by  
22 24 26 28
 
42 44 46 48
A=
62
.
 64 66 68

82 84 86 88
Let V be the set of vectors v ∈ R4 that are orthogonal to all column vectors of A. Show that
V is a subspace of R4 and find a basis for V .