Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur

Department of Mathematics

Tutorial Sheet-1 Linear Algebra and Partial Differential Equations (MAL210)

1. Define the terms: field, vector space, subspace, basis, dimension, linear combination,
linear dependence, sum and direct sum.

2. True/False

(a) Every vector space contains a zero vector.

(b) A vector space may have more than one zero vector.
(c) In any vector space ax = ay implies that x = y.
(d) A vector in F n may be regarded as a matrix in Mn×1 (F ).
(e) In the polynomial space P (t) over some field F , only polynomials of the same
degree can be added.

3. A function f : R → R (reals) is an even function if f (−x) = f (x) for each real number
x. Prove that the set E of all even functions with the operations of addition and
scalar multiplication defined by (f + g)(x) = f (x) + g(x), and kf (x) = (kf )(x), where
f, g ∈ E; k ∈ R is a vector space. What about the set O of all odd functions?

4. Define addition and scalar multiplication on V = R2 by

(x1 , x2 ) + (y1 , y2 ) = (x1 + 2y1 , x2 + 3y2 ) and c (x1 , x2 ) = (cx1 , cx2 )

Is V a vector space over R with these operations?

5. Prove that the intersection of any number of subspaces of a vector space is a subspace.
Is the union of subspaces of a vector space also a subspace? Justify your answer.

6. Consider the matrix space Mn×n over R. Let U be subspace of upper triangular matrices
and L the subspace of lower triangular matrices. Show that V is the sum of U and L
but not the direct sum.

7. Let W1 and W2 be two subspaces of a vector space V such that V = W1 + W2 and

W1 ∩ W2 = {0}. Prove that each vector v ∈ V there are unique vectors α1 ∈ W1 and
α2 ∈ W2 such that v = α1 + α2 .

8. Consider the space R3 . Determine whether u1 = (1, 2, −3), u2 = (1, −3, 2) and u3 =
(2, −1, 5) are linearly independent?
 
1 2
9. Consider the matrix space M2×2 . Determine whether the matrices A = ,B =
    3 1
3 −1 1 −5
and C = are linearly independent?
2 2 −4 0

1
10. Consider the polynomial space P3 (t). Determine whether the polynomials, u = t3 +
4t2 − 2t + 3, v = t3 + 6t2 − t + 4 and w = 3t3 + 8t2 − 8t + 7 are linearly dependent?

11. Show that the columns of every invertible n × n matrix give a basis for Rn .

12. Let V be a vector space and dim V = n. Then any subset of V which contains more
than n elements is linearly dependent.

13. Let W1 and W2 be finite dimensional subspaces of a vector space V . Show that W1 +W2
is finite dimensional and

dim W1 + dim W2 = dim (W1 + W2 ) + dim (W1 ∩ W2 )

14. Show that the subspace U of R4 spanned by the vectors u1 = (1, 2, −1, 3), u2 =
(2, 4, 1, −2) and u3 = (3, 6, 3, −7) and the subspace W of R4 spanned by the vectors
v1 = (1, 2, −4, 11) and v2 = (2, 4, −5, 14) are equal; that is, U = W .

15. Check whether or not the vectors u = (1, 1, 2), v = (2, 3, 1), w = (4, 5, 5) form a basis
for R3 .

16. Find a basis and dimension for the set of 3 × 3 symmetric matrices with real number
entries.

17. Find a basis and dimension for the set of polynomial with real number coefficient whose
degree at most n.

18. Determine whether (1, 1, 1, 1), (1, 2, 3, 2), (2, 5, 6, 4), (2, 6, 8, 5) form a basis of R4 . If
not, find the dimension of the subspace they span.

19. Extend u1 = (1, 1, 1, 1); u2 = (2, 2, 3, 4) to a basis of R4 .

20. Define coordinate vector of a vector relative to a basis.

21. Consider real space R3 . Show that the set of vectors S = {u1 , u2 , u3 }, is a basis for R3 ,
where u1 = (1, −1, 0), u2 = (1, 1, 0) and u3 = (0, 1, 1). Find the coordinate vector of
v = (5, 3, 4) relative to S.

22. Consider the polynomial space P2 (t) over R. Show that the set S = {1, t − 1, (t − 1)2 }
is a basis for P2 (t). Find the coordinate vector of v = 2t2 − 5t + 6 relative to S.

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