MATH 203 - LINEAR ALGEBRA

Solution Sets of Linear Systems

&
Applications of Linear Systems
HOMOGENEOUS LINEAR SYSTEMS

A system of linear equations is said to be homogeneous

if it can be written in the form , is a matrix
and is the zero vector in .

Such a system always has at least one solution,

namely, the trivial solution (the zero vector in
).

For a given equation , the important question is

whether there exists a nontrivial solution, that is, a
nonzero vector that satisfies .
HOMOGENEOUS LINEAR SYSTEMS

Example 1: Determine if the following homogeneous

system has a nontrivial solution. Then describe the
solution set.

Solution: Let be the matrix of coefficients of the

system and row reduce the augmented matrix to
echelon form:
HOMOGENEOUS LINEAR SYSTEMS

Since is a free variable, has nontrivial

solutions (one for each choice of ).

Continue the row reduction of to reduced echelon

form:
HOMOGENEOUS LINEAR SYSTEMS

The corresponding system is then

Solving for the basic variables and gives

, with free.
As a vector, the general solution of has the form

, where .
HOMOGENEOUS LINEAR SYSTEMS

Here, is factored out of the expression for the general

solution vector.

This shows that every solution of is a scalar

multiple of . The trivial solution is obtained by
choosing .

Geometrically, the solution set is a line through in .

PARAMETRIC VECTOR FORM

The equation of the form , , is

called a parametric vector equation of the plane.

In Example 1, the equation (with free),

or (with in ), is a parametric vector equation
of a line.

Whenever a solution set is described explicitly with

vectors as in Example 1, we say that the solution is in
parametric vector form.
SOLUTIONS OF NONHOMOGENEOUS SYSTEMS

When a nonhomogeneous linear system has many

solutions, the general solution can be written in
parametric vector form as one vector plus an arbitrary
linear combination of vectors that satisfy the
corresponding homogeneous system.
SOLUTIONS OF NONHOMOGENEOUS SYSTEMS

Example 2: Describe all solutions of , where

and .

Solution: Row operations on produce

.
SOLUTIONS OF NONHOMOGENEOUS SYSTEMS

The corresponding system is then

Thus , , and is free.

As a vector, the general solution of has the form

𝒑 𝒗
SOLUTIONS OF NONHOMOGENEOUS SYSTEMS

The equation , or writing as a general

parameter
,
describes the solution set of in parametric
vector form.

Thus the solutions of are obtained by adding the

vector to the solutions of .

To describe the solution of geometrically, we

can think of vector addition as a translation.
SOLUTIONS OF NONHOMOGENEOUS SYSTEMS

Given and in or , the effect of adding to

is to move in a direction parallel to the line through
and .

Suppose is the line through and , described by

equation .

Adding to each point on produces the translated line

described by equation ( ). Note that is on the line in
equation ( ).
SOLUTIONS OF NONHOMOGENEOUS SYSTEMS

We call equation ( ) the equation of the line through

parallel to .

Thus the solution set of is a line through

parallel to the solution set of . The figure
illustrates this case.
SOLUTIONS OF NONHOMOGENEOUS SYSTEMS

Theorem 6

Suppose the equation 𝐴𝒙 𝒃 is consistent for some given 𝒃 and

let 𝒑 be a solution. Then the solution set of 𝐴𝒙 𝒃 is the set of
all vectors of the form 𝒘 𝒑 𝒗 , where 𝒗 is any solution of
the homogeneous equation.
SOLUTIONS OF NONHOMOGENEOUS SYSTEMS

The theorem says that if has a solution, then the

solution set is obtained by translating the solution set of
, using any particular solution of for
the translation.
SOLUTIONS OF LINEAR SYSTEMS

Writing a Solution Set (of a Consistent System) in

Parametric Vector Form
1. Row reduce the augmented matrix to the reduced
echelon form.
2. Express each basic variable in terms of any free
variables appearing in an equation.
3. Write a typical solution as a vector whose entries
depend on the free variables, if any.
4. Decompose into a linear combination of vectors
(with numeric entries) using the free variables as
parameters.
SOLUTIONS OF LINEAR SYSTEMS

Example 3: Solve the linear system

SOLUTIONS OF LINEAR SYSTEMS

Example 4: Are the following statements True or False?

a. Whenever a system has free variables, the solution

set contains many solutions. ( )
b. A vector is a linear combination of the columns of
if and only if the equation has at least one
solution. ( )
c. If the coefficient matrix has a pivot position in
every row, then the system has nontrivial
solutions. ( )
APPLICATIONS OF LINEAR SYSTEMS

Systems of linear equations arise naturally when

scientists or engineers study the flow of some quantity
through a network.

For instance, urban planners and traffic engineers

monitor the pattern of traffic flow in a grid of city
streets, electrical engineers calculate the current flow
through electrical circuits, etc.
APPLICATIONS OF LINEAR SYSTEMS

A network consists of a set of points called junctions or

nodes with lines or arcs called branches connecting
some or all of the junctions. The direction of flow in
each branch is indicated and the flow is either shown or
denoted by a variable.

The basic assumption of network flow is that the total

flow into the network equals the total flow out of the
network and that flow into a junction equals the total
flow out of the junction.
APPLICATIONS OF LINEAR SYSTEMS

For example, in the figure units flowing into a

junction through one brach with and denoting the
flows out of the junction through other branches.

Since the flow is conserved at each junction, we must

have . Similarly, the flow at each junction
is described by a linear equation.

The problem of network analysis is to determine the

flow in each branch when partial information is known.
APPLICATIONS OF LINEAR SYSTEMS

Example 5: The network in the figure shows the traffic

flow over several streets in downtown Baltimore during
a typical early afternoon. Determine the general flow
pattern for the network.
APPLICATIONS OF LINEAR SYSTEMS

Example 6: Find the general flow pattern of the

network shown in the figure. Assume that the flows are
all nonnegative, what is the largest possible value for
?