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Linear Algebra Practice Exam

The document contains 9 practice problems related to linear algebra concepts such as systems of linear equations, matrix operations, linear independence, LU decomposition, and null spaces. The problems involve tasks like finding values that make a system consistent, determining reduced row echelon form, showing sets are subspaces, computing inverses, solving systems using LU decomposition, finding spanning sets of null spaces, and determining if sets of vectors are linearly independent bases.

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275 views9 pages

Linear Algebra Practice Exam

The document contains 9 practice problems related to linear algebra concepts such as systems of linear equations, matrix operations, linear independence, LU decomposition, and null spaces. The problems involve tasks like finding values that make a system consistent, determining reduced row echelon form, showing sets are subspaces, computing inverses, solving systems using LU decomposition, finding spanning sets of null spaces, and determining if sets of vectors are linearly independent bases.

Uploaded by

7xy29kg2zc
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Practice Midterm Exam

1. Consider the system of linear equations:

−3x1 − 4x2 + 4x3 + 4x4 = 2


x1 + 2x2 − x3 − 2x4 = −2
−3x1 − 2x2 + 5x3 + 2x4 = α

where α is any real number.

(a) Find the only value of α for which the system has solutions.
(b) For this value of α, find all solutions to the system of equations.
(c) Identify the reduced row echelon form of the coefficient matrix of this system of
equations.

1
2. (a) A matrix A is skew-symmetric if AT = −A. Use the rules of transposes and the
three properties of a subspace to show that the set S of all skew-symmetric n × n
matrices is a subspace of the vector space M of n × n matrices.
(b) Find a spanning set for the subspace of skew-symmetric 2 × 2 matrices that has
only one matrix in it. (That is, show that all skew-symmetric 2 × 2 matrices are
multiples of one particular matrix.)

2
3. Suppose v and w are vectors with kvk = 3 and kwk = 5.

(a) Find the smallest and largest possible values of kv − wk.


(b) Find the smallest and largest possible values of v · w.

3
4. (a) Find the inverse of  
1 1 1 1
 1 2 3 4 
A=
 1

3 6 10 
1 4 10 20
(b) Use A−1 to solve the linear system of equations Ax = (0, 1, 0, 0).

4
5. Suppose Ax = b is a linear system of n equations in n variables and x1 , x2 are two
solutions with x1 6= x2 .

(a) Is the matrix A invertible? Explain.


(b) Show that x = x1 + α(x1 − x2 ) is also a solution to Ax = b for any scalar α.
Which value of α gives the solution x2 ?

5
6. Set  
2 1 1
A =  6 4 5 .
4 1 3

(a) Find the LU decomposition of A.


(b) Use the LU decomposition to solve the system of equations Ax = (1, 2, 3) (that
is, solve the two triangular systems Ly = (1, 2, 3) and U x = y).

6
7. Consider the matrix  
1 2 2 3 1
A= 2 4 5 5 4 
3 6 7 8 5

(a) Find a spanning set (the special solutions) for the null space N(A).
(b) Find a linear relation on b1 , b2 , b3 that guarantees that b = (b1 , b2 , b3 ) is a vector
in the column space C(A).

7
8. Determine whether or not the following sets of vectors are bases for R3 . In case
the vectors are not linearly independent, find a way to write one vector as a linear
combination of the other two.
           
 1 3 6   1 1 1 
(a)  1 , 2 , 5
     (b)  1 , 2 , 3 
   
1 1 4 1 3 6
   

8
9. Find numbers c that give dependent columns, so that a combination of the columns
equals 0. For each value of c that you find, write one column of each matrix as a linear
combination of the other two.
 
1 1 0
(a) A =  3 2 1 
7 4 c
 
1 0 c
(b) B =  1 1 0 
0 1 1
 
c c c
(c) C =  2 1 5 
3 3 6

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