Matrix Algebra

Properties of Matrix Multiplication

1. A(BC) = (AB)C

2. A(B + C) = AB + AC

3. (B + C)A = BA + CA

4. (kA)B = A(kB) = k(AB), where k is a constant.

  
0 1 0 −1
Warm-up: (a) Evaluate
−1 0 1 0
  
−1 0 0 −1
(b) Evaluate
0 1 1 0
  
0 −1 −1 0
(c) Evaluate
1 0 0 1

(d) Describe (geometrically) the linear transformations (a), (b) and (c).

(e) (T/F) For any matrices A, B, we always have AB = BA.

(f) (T/F) If A2 = I, then A = I.

(g) (T/F) If A2 = 0, then A = 0.

(Exercise) Here is a more general form for (a)(b)(c): suppose a2 + b2 = 1, describe (geometrically) the
following linear transformations:
  
a b a −b
(a)
−b a b a
  
c d a −b
(b)
d −c b a
  
a −b c d
(c)
b a d −c

1
  
3 2
1. (a) The matrix is invertible; find its inverse.
7 5
Solution. When we want to find the inverse of a matrix A, we essentially want to solve the
system A~x = ~y to write ~x in terms of ~y .1 As usual, we solve
 this
 using Gauss-Jordan, i.e., by
  y1
row-reducing the augmented matrix A ~y . If we write ~y = , then we have:
y2

1 23 y31
   
3 2 y1 ÷3
→
7 5 y2 7 5 y2 −7(I)
y1
1 23
 
→ 3
0 13 − 7y31 + y2 ÷ 13
y1
1 23 − 23 (II)
 
→ 3
0 1 −7y1 + 3y2
 
1 0 5y1 − 2y2
→
0 1 −7y1 + 3y2
So,     
5y1 − 2y2 5 −2 y1
~x = = ,
−7y1 + 3y2 −7 3 y2
which shows that  
−1 5 −2
A = .
−7 3
Note: From now on, we will write this calculation in a slightly different way; the entries of the
right most column in the augmented matrix are all linear combinations of y1 and y2 , so we can
instead
 keep
 track of the coefficients of y1 and y2 . That is, instead of row-reducing
 the matrix 
3 2 y1 3 2 1 0
, we can think of y1 and y2 as 1y1 + 0y2 and 0y1 + 1y2 and row-reduce .
7 5 y2 7 5 0 1
If we row-reduce, then we end up with
 
1 0 5 −2
.
0 1 −7 3

The right side of this is the inverse A−1

 . So, the general method
 here is: to find the inverse of an
n × n matrix, row-reduce the matrix A In to end up with In A−1 .

3p + 2q= 7
(b) Solve the linear system .
7p + 5q= 13
      
3 2 p 7 3 2
Solution. We can rewrite the system as = . Since we’ve seen that is
7 5 q 13 7 5
   −1  
p 3 2 7
invertible, the system has a unique solution, = . Using our answer to ??, this
q 7 5 13
        
5 −2 7 9 p 9
is equal to = . So, the system has a unique solution, = .
−7 3 13 −10 q −10

2. If A and B are invertible n × n matrices, express (AB)−1 in terms of A−1 and B −1 .

Solution. Intuitively, we know that AB means “do B, then do A”. To undo this, we need to first
undo A (by doing A−1 ), then undo B (by doing B −1 ), so the inverse of AB is B −1 A−1 .
1 More precisely, we want to write ~
x as B~
y for some matrix B; the matrix B is the inverse of A.

2
 (A useful way of remembering this is to think, “I put on my socks, then my shoes. When I take them
off, I take off my shoes, then my socks.”)

3. (T/F)
If AC = BC, then A = B.
 
1 2
Solution. False. It is true only if C is invertible. Here is a counterexample: take A = ,
    3 4
1 2 1 0
B= and C =
3 0 0 0
 
1 1 1
4. Let A = 0
 1 1.
0 0 1

(a) A is invertible; find its inverse.

 
Solution. As explained in the solution of ??, if we row reduce the augmented matrix A I3 ,
we will end up with I3 A−1 . So, let’s row reduce A I3 :
 
   
1 1 1 1 0 0 −(II) 1 0 0 1 −1 0
0 1 1 0 1 0 → 0 1 1 0 1 0 −(III)
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
 
1 0 0 1 −1 0
→ 0 1 0 0 1 −1
0 0 1 0 0 1
 
1 −1 0
So, A−1 = 0 1 −1.
0 0 1
 
2 0 0
(b) If B = 0 3 0, find all 3 × 3 matrices X which satisfy the equation AXA−1 = B.
0 0 5

Solution. If we multiply the equation AXA−1 = B by A−1 on the left and A on the right, we
get
A−1 (AXA−1 )A = A−1 BA

(We’ve colored the A−1 and A just to make clear that we did the same thing to both sides of the
equation.) Since matrix multiplication is associative, we can re-arrange the parentheses in this
expression (as long as we don’t change the order of the matrices):

(A−1 A)X(A−1 A) = A−1 BA

Since A−1 A = In , this simplifies to just

X = A−1 BA

 
2 −1 −1
Since we already found A−1 , it is straightforward to compute this, and we find that it is 0 3 −2 .
0 0 5

3
1,2,3 are equalvilant:

1. An×n is invertible if there exists a matrix Bn×n such that AB = BA = In×n

2. An×n is invertible if rref (A) = In

3. The rank of A is n (i.e. n leading 1s)

 
a b
There is a fairly simple formula if A is 2×2 and you know how to derive it. If A = is invertible, then
  c d
d −b
A−1 = ad−bc
1
. Notice, the formula won’t make any sense if ad − bc = 0. In fact, there is property
−c a
about invertible matrices (we will cover later): If A is invertible, then det(A) 6= 0 (det=determinant). This
is saying if det(A) = 0, then A is not invertible.