NCB 10103 : MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS 1 Tutorial 3

Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

1. Find the characteristic equation and eigenvalues of the following matrices:

2 0 0 1
a) A b) A
1 3 1 1

1 0 4 5 0 0
c) A 0 4 0 d) A 9 4 1
3 5 3 6 2 1

1 2 3 4 5
0 2 3 4 5
0 0.95 0.6
e) A 0 0 3 4 5 f) A 0.8 0 0

0 0 0 4 5 0 0.5 0
0 0 0 0 5

2. Find the general eigenvectors for the matrices A in question 1(a) and 1(b).

3. Find the particular eigenvectors for the matrices A in question 1(c) and 1(d).

1 k
4. a) Consider the matrix A k
, where is an arbitrary constant.
1 1
i) For what values of k does the matrix A have two distinct
real eigenvalues ?
ii) For what values of k does the matrix A has no real eigenvalues ?

a b
A
b) Consider the matrix b a , where a, b are arbitrary constants.
Find all eigenvalues of matrix A .
a c
c) Consider a 2 2 matrix of the form A where a, b, c, d are
b d
positive number such that a b c d 1 .
c 1
b
i) Verify that and 1 are eigenvectors of matrix A and
what are the associated eigenvalues ?
 NCB 10103 : MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS 1 Tutorial 3
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

0 1 0
5. a) Find the characteristic polynomial of the matrix A 0 0 1
a b c

b) Hence, find a 3 3 matrix M whose characteristic polynomial is

3 172 5 .

6. Applications to vibrations

a) Consider a two-storey building subject to earthquake oscillations, as

shown in Figure 1. The equations of motion are expressed as x Ax
x 2
x 1 T
where x2 . The period , T, of natural vibrations is given by
where is the eigenvalue of a given matrix A. Find the period (s) if
20 10
A
10 10 .

Figure 1
 NCB 10103 : MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS 1 Tutorial 3
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

b) Consider the two-storey building shown in Figure 2. The equations of

3k / 2m k / 2m x1 0
motion are expressed as where k is a negative
k /m k / m x2 0
2
constant and m is mass. Find the period, T , given by T where

is an eigenvalue.

Figure 2

7. Applications to control engineering

A system is described by the equations

x 1 2 x1 2 x 2 u1

x 2 x1 5 x 2 u 2

Write these equations in the form

x Ax Iu

x u
where x 1 , x x 1 is the time derivative, u 1 and I is
x2 x 2 u2

the identity matrix.

i) Determine the eigenvalues (system poles) of A.

ii) Determine the corresponding general eigenvectors.
 NCB 10103 : MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS 1 Tutorial 3
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

MATRIX DIAGONALIZATION

8. Determine which of the following matrices A are diagonalizable. If possible,

find an invertible matrix P and a diagonal form matrix D such that P 1 AP D
.
2 0 1 1
a) A b) A
0 3 2 2

1 0 1
1 1
c) A d) A 0 2 0
0 1 0 0 1

1 1 0 1 1 1
e) A 0 2 2 f) A 0 1 0
0 0 3 0 1 0

9. For what values of a, b, and c are the followings matrices diagonalizable ?

1 a 1 1
a) 0 2 b)
a 1

1 a b 0 0 a
c) 0 2 c d) 1 0 0

0 0 3 0 1 0

10. Find the eigenvectors of the following matrices

1 1 0 1 0 2
a) A 0 1 0 b) A 0 1 1
0 0 2 1 1 1
 NCB 10103 : MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS 1 Tutorial 3
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

ANSWERS

1 5 1 5
1. a) 1 2, 2 3 b) 1 , 2
2 2

c) 1 4, 2 5, 3 3 d) 1 2, 2 5, 3 3

e) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

(The eigenvalues of a triangular matrix are its diagonal entries)

f) 1 1, 2 0.6, 3 0.4

2 0 1
2. For A , the general eigenvectors corresponding to 2 are X t
1 3 1

0
and the general eigenvectors corresponding to 3 are X t where t 0
1

0 1 1 5
For A , the general eigenvectors corresponding to 1 are
1 1 2
1 1 5
X t 1 5 and the general eigenvectors corresponding to 2 are
2
2
1
X t 1 5 where t 0

2
 NCB 10103 : MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS 1 Tutorial 3
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

1 0 4 2

3. For A 0 4 0 , the particular eigenvectors corresponding to 3 is 0
3 5 3 1

20

the particular eigenvectors corresponding to 4 is 9 and
15

2

the particular eigenvectors corresponding to 5 is 0
3

5 0 0 0

For A 9 4 1 the particular eigenvectors corresponding to 2 is 1
6 2 1 2

0

the particular eigenvectors corresponding to 3 is 1 and
1

1

the particular eigenvectors corresponding to 5 is 5
4

4. a) 1 1 k , 2 1 k

i) Matrix A have two distinct real eigenvalues if k 0 ( k is positive)

ii) Matrix A has no real eigenvalues if k 0 ( k is negative)

b) a 2 b2

c) 1
 NCB 10103 : MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS 1 Tutorial 3
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

Characteristic polynomial of the matrix A is c b a

3 2
5. a)

0 1 0
b) M 0 0 1
5 17

2m 2m
6. a) T 1.23 s, T 3.21 s b) T 2 , T
k k

7. i) 1 4, 2 3

1
ii) For 1 4, the general eigenvectors are t where t 0
1

2
and for 2 3, the general eigenvectors are t where t 0
1

1 0 2 0
8. a) PI , D A
0 1 0 3

1 1 0 0
b) P , D
1 2 0 3

c) not diagonalizable

d) not diagonalizable

1 1 1 1 0 0

e) P 0 1 2 ,
D 0 2 0

0 0 1 0 0 3

f) not diagonalizable
 NCB 10103 : MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS 1 Tutorial 3
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

9. a) diagonalizable for all values of a

b) diagonalizable for positive values of a

c) diagonalizable for all values of a, b and c

d) never diagonalizable

1

10. a) When 1 2 1 , the eigenvectors are X t 0 where t 0 .
0

0

When 3 2 , the eigenvectors are X t 0 where t 0
1

1

b) When 1 1, the eigenvectors are X t 1 where t 0
0

2 3
i
3

When 1 1 3 i , the eigenvectors are X t
3
i where t 0
3
1

2 3
i
3
When 2 1 3 i , the eigenvectors are X t
3
i where t 0
3
1