Question: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total

Marks: 5 5 4 3 6 3 10 5 3 6 50
Score:

Name (print):

Signature:

UWO ID number:

Circle the numbers of your section and lab section in the tables below:

001 MWF 12:30 Arash Pourkia

002 MWF 11:30 Graham Denham

003 Thu 1:30 C. Portwood 006 Thu 10:30 S. Acar

004 Thu 12:30 W. Grey 007 Wed 10:30 A. Moatadelro
005 Thu 2:30 C. Portwood 008 Wed 9:30 A. Moatadelro
009 Thu 10:30 R. Gonzales

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

MATHEMATICS 1600b MIDTERM EXAMINATION

1 March 2011 7:00–9:00 PM

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. This exam is 6 pages long. It is printed single-sided. There are 10 questions.

2. All questions must be answered in the space provided. Indicate your answer clearly. Should you need extra
space, a blank page is provided at the end of the booklet.
3. Show all your of your work and explain your answers fully. Unjustified, irrelevant or illegible answers will
receive little or no credit.
4. Do not unstaple the exam booklet.
5. No aids are permitted. In particular, calculators, cell phones, ipods etc. are not allowed and
may be confiscated.

1. (5 marks) For each of the following statements, circle T if the statement is always true and F if it can be
false. No justification required.
(a) If u · v = 0, then either u = 0 or v = 0.
Mathematics 1600b Midterm exam 1 March 2011

Solution: False; e.g., u = (1, 0), v = (0, 1).

(b) If S is a linearly dependent set, then each vector in S is a linear combination of the other vectors in S.

Solution: False; consider {(0, 0), (1, 0)}.

(c) If A is a symmetric matrix, then A − AT = 0.

Solution: True: if A is symmetric, A = AT .

(d) The columns of an invertible matrix are linearly dependent.

Solution: False; they are linearly independent.

(e) If Rθ is the matrix of a rotation in R2 , then rank(Rθ ) = 1.

Solution: False: rotations are invertible, so have rank 2.

2. Let L be the line through the two points (2, 1) and (5, −2). Write an equation for L in two ways: that is,
(a) (3 marks) Find a, b, c so that ax + by = c is an equation for L.

Solution: Substitute to get

2a + b − c = 0
5a − 2b − c = 0

Solve for a, b, c by row-reducing  

2 1 −1
5 −2 −1
to  
1 0 −1/3
0 1 −1/3
Pick any c 6= 0 and solve for a, b: e.g., c = 3, a = 1, b = 1.

(b) (2 marks) Describe L by means of a vector equation.

Solution: The vector v = (5, −2) − (2, 1) = (3, −3) is in the direction of the line, so

x = (2, 1) + t(3, −3)

is a vector equation for L.

3. (a) (3 marks) For what values of a does the system of equations below have a solution?

x1 − 2x2 + 3x3 = 4
−2x1 + 4x2 + ax3 = 4

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Mathematics 1600b Midterm exam 1 March 2011

Solution: Row-reduce augmented matrix

 
1 −2 3 4
−2 4 a 4

to  
1 −2 3 4
0 0 a + 6 12
to see that the solution is consistent if and only if a 6= −6.

(b) (1 mark) For what values of a are the vectors u = (1, −2, 3) and v = (−2, 4, a) linearly independent?

Solution: The calculation above shows that u and v are linearly independent unless a = −6.

4. (3 marks) What is the missing digit y in the ISBN 0-387-55y59-6 ? Recall that the check vector for ISBN-10
is c = [10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1].

Solution: Calculate mod 11:

0 = c · (10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
= 9·3+8·8+7·7+6·5+5·5+4·y+3·5+2·9+1·6
= 4y + 3.

So 4y = −3 = 8, and y = 2.

5. (6 marks) Does the matrix A below have an inverse? If so, find it; if not, explain.
 
1 −1 1
A = −1 2 1
1 1 4

Solution: Row-reduce (A|I3 ) to decide:

   
1 −1 1 1 0 0 1 −1 1 1 0 0
 −1 2 1 0 1 0 → 0 1 2 1 1 0 →
1 1 4 0 0 1 0 2 3 −1 0 1
   
1 −1 1 1 0 0 1 −1 1 1 0 0
 0 1 2 1 1 0 → 0 1 2 1 1 0 →
0 0 −1 −3 −2 1 0 0 1 3 2 −1
   
1 −1 0 −2 −2 1 1 0 0 −7 −5 3
 0 1 0 −5 −3 2  →  0 1 0 −5 −3 2 
0 0 1 3 2 −1 0 0 1 3 2 −1

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Mathematics 1600b Midterm exam 1 March 2011

 
−7 −5 3
So A is invertible, and A−1 = −5 −3 2 .
3 2 −1

6. Suppose A is a 3 × 4 matrix and u and v are vectors for which

   
1 1
Au = 2 and Av = −1.
3 −1
(a) (1 mark) What is A(2u + v)?

Solution:

A(2u + v) = A(2u) + Av
= 2Au + Av
   
1 1
= 22 + −1
3 −1
 
3
= 3.
5

(b) (2 marks) Does the equation Ax = 0 necessarily have a nonzero solution? Why or why not?

Solution: Since A is a 3 × 4 matrix, its rank is at most 3. So

nullity(A) = 4 − rank(A)
≥ 4−3
= 1.

It follows that Ax = 0 has a nonzero solution.

7. Let    
0 1 1 −1 2 −1 0 1 1 0 −1 1
A = 0 −1 −1 2 −5 3  and R = 0 0 0 1 −3 2 .
0 1 1 1 −4 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Given that R is the reduced row-echelon form of A, find the following, explaining your work.
(a) (1 mark) rank(A)

Solution: Equals the number of leading 1’s, which is 2.

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Mathematics 1600b Midterm exam 1 March 2011

(b) (1 mark) nullity(A)

Solution: By the Rank Theorem, equals 6 − 2 = 4, since A has 6 columns.

(c) (2 marks) A basis for row(A)

Solution: Given by nonzero rows of R,

{(0, 1, 1, 0, −1, 1), (0, 0, 0, 1, −3, 2)}.

(d) (2 marks) A basis for col(A)

Solution: Given by pivot columns of A,

   
1 −1
{−1,  2 }.
1 1

(e) (3 marks) A basis for null(A)

Solution: Solve Ax = 0 using R. Get a basis vector for each free variable,

{(1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)T , (0, −1, 1, 0, 0, 0)T , (0, 1, 0, 3, 1, 0)T , (0, −1, 0, −2, 0, 1)T }.

(f) (1 mark) The dimension of null(AT )

Solution: Use the Rank Theorem on AT : the rank of AT equals the rank of A which is 2. AT has 3
columns, so the nulltiy of AT is 3 − 2 = 1.
   
2 −4
8. (5 marks) Let u = and v = .
3 3
(a) Determine kvk.
p
Solution: We have kvk = (−4)2 + 32 = 5.

(b) Compute the orthogonal projection of u onto the line in the direction of v.

Solution: The projection formula gives

u·v
projv (u) = v
v·v
1
= v
25 −4
= 25
3
25

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Mathematics 1600b Midterm exam 1 March 2011

9. (3 marks) Suppose A is a n × n matrix that satisfies A4 = 0. Carefully show that

(In + A)−1 = In − A + A2 − A3 .

Solution: To show one square matrix is the inverse of another, it is enough to show that their product is
the identity matrix. Check:

(In + A)(In − A + A2 − A3 ) = In (In − A + A2 − A3 ) + A(In − A + A2 − A3 ),

= (In − A + A2 − A3 ) + A − A2 + A3 − A4 ,
= In − A + A2 − A3 + A − A2 + A3 since A4 = 0;
= In .

10. (6 marks) Use row-reduction to find the general solution to the system of equations

x1 + 3x2 − 2x4 = 2
x3 + 3x4 = −3
x1 + 3x2 + x3 + x4 = −1.

Solution: Row-reduce the augmented matrix:

   
1 3 0 −2 2 1 3 0 −2 2
 0 0 1 3 −3  →  0 0 1 3 −3  →
1 3 1 1 −1 0 0 1 3 −3
 
1 3 0 −2 2
 0 0 1 3 −3 
0 0 0 0 0

Let x2 = s and x4 = t (free variables). Solve for x1 , . . . , x4 in terms of s and t, to obtain the general
solution to the system:

x1 = −3s + 2t + 2
x2 = s
x3 = − 3t − 3
x4 = t.

Did you fill out the first page completely?

Did you give full explanations and show all of your work?

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