Department of Mathematical Sciences
RAJIV GANDHI INSTITUTE OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY, JAIS, U.P.
MA211 / Linear Algebra and Complex Analysis
Week 3, August 2025 Problem Set 3 S.K., M.K.R.
■ Sub-spaces, Linear Combinations
1. Show that the vectors (1, 1, 0), (1, 0, 1) and (0, 1, 1) span R3 .
2. Show that the matrices
! ! ! !
1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1
, , and
1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1
span M2×2 (R). Find a set of matrices which spans the set of all 2 × 2 real symmetric
matrices.
3. Let V = ( x, y, z) ∈ R3 : x + y − z = 0 . Show that V is a sub-space of R3 . Find a finite
subset S of R3 such that span(S) = V.
4. Let W be the set of all ( x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 ) ∈ R5 which satisfy
4
2x1 − x2 + x3 − x4 =0
3
2
x1 + x3 − x5 = 0
3
9x1 − 3x2 + 6x3 − 3x4 − 3x5 = 0.
Show that W is a subspace of R5 . Find a finite set of vectors which spans W.
5. Show that the intersection of two subspaces of a vector space is a subspace. Is the union
of two subspaces always a subspace? Justify.
6. Let F be the field R of real numbers, and let V denote the vector space of all 2 × 2 matrices
over F. Let W1 be the subset of V consisting of all matrices of the form
!
x y
z 0
where x, y, z are arbitrary scalars in F. Finally, let W2 be the subset of V consisting of all
matrices of the form !
x 0
0 y
where x and y are arbitrary scalars in F. Show that W1 and W2 are subspaces of V. Find
W1 ∩ W2 . Find a finite spanning set for W1 ∩ W2 .
7. Express the polynomial 3 − 2x + 4x2 − 5x3 as a linear combination of 1, x − 1, ( x −
1)2 , ( x − 1)3 .
8. Does the vector (1, 2, 3) lie in the vector subspace of R3 generated by the vectors (0, 1, 1),
(1, 0, 1), (1, 1, 0)?
9. Can the vector (1, 1, 0) be expressed as a linear combination of the vectors (1, 0, 1) and
(0, 1, 1)? Justify.
10. Consider the matrix
1 2 0 3 0
1
2 −1 −1 0
A = 0 0 1 4 0 .
2 4 1 10 1
0 0 0 0 1
Find a spanning set for the row space of A consisting of less than 5 vectors. Which of the
vectors (−5, −10, 1, −11, 20) and (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) lies in the row space of A? Justify. Find a
spanning set for the solution space of AX = 0.
