Department of Mathematical Sciences
RAJIV GANDHI INSTITUTE OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY, JAIS, U.P.
MA211 / Linear Algebra and Complex Analysis
Week 1, August, 2025 Problem Set 1 SK, MKR.
■ Matrix Algebra / System of Linear Equations
1. Find two different 2 × 2 matrices A such that A2 = 0 but A ̸= 0.
2. Let
! 3
2 −1 1
A= , B=
1 ,
C = 1 −1 .
1 2 1
−1
Compute ABC and CAB.
n
3. Let A = [ aij ] be an n × n matrix. The “trace of A” is defined by tr ( A) = ∑ aii , that is the
i =1
sum of the diagonal entries of A. Show that for any two n × n matrices A and B, we have
tr ( A ± B) = tr ( A) ± tr ( B) and tr ( AB) = tr ( BA).
4. Write down all the 2 × 2, and 3 × 3 elementary matrices.
5. Show that the “interchange of two rows” of a matrix can be obtained by applying a finite
sequence of other two elementary row operations.
6. Consider a system of linear equations AX = B. Show that if X1 and X2 are any two
solutions of the given system, then λX1 + (1 − λ) X2 is also a solution for any scalar λ.
Conclude that a system of linear equations cannot have exactly two solutions. Explain it
geometrically for a system of three linear equations in three variables.
7. Which of following matrices are row reduced and which ones are not?
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 2 1
1 −2 0 , 1 −2 0 , 0 0 , 1 0 −3
0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
8. Which of following matrices are in row reduced echelon form and which ones are not?
1 2 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 −3 0 12
0 0 1 0
1 −2 0 , 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 1 2 ,
0 0 0 1
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
9. Find all solutions to the following system of equations by row-reducing the coefficient
matrix:
1
x1 + 2x2 − 6x3 = 0
3
−4x1 + 5x3 = 0
−3x1 + 6x2 − 13x3 = 0
7 8
− x1 + 2x2 − x3 = 0
3 3
2
10. If
6 −4 0
A=
4 −2 0
−1 0 3
find the all the solutions of AX = 2X and all the solution of AX = 3X.
11. Show that the following two matrices are not row-equivalent:
1 a b 1 1 2
0 2 c , −2 0 − 1
0 0 3 1 3 5
12. Use elementary row operations to find the solution of the system AX = B, where
2 −1 3 2
A= 1 4 ,
0 B= −1 .
2 6 −1 5
13. Without using determinant, find the inverse of A of Problem 10.
14. Let
3 −1 2
A=
2 1 .
1
1 −3 0
For which triples (y1 , y2 , y3 ) does the system AX = Y have a solution?
