Oral Test 1.

1. Complete the following definition:

A matrix A = [ai,j ] ∈ Matn (F) is called upper triangular if

2. A system of linear equations Ax = b, where A ∈ Mat(m, n, F), b ∈ Mat(m, 1, F), is called homogeneous
if

3. Formulate Sarrus’ rule for the computation of the determinant.

4. Is the following statement always true? Explain.

If A ∈ Matn (F) and det A = 0 then A has either a zero row or a zero column.

5. Let F be a field; let (a0 , b0 ), (a1 , b1 ), . . . , (an , bn ) ∈ R2 be a set of n + 1 ordered pairs (data points) where
all ai are pairwise disctinct. Then, there is a unique polynomial p(x) ∈ R[x] of degree at most n such
that p(ai ) = bi for all i. Moreover, p(x) can be expressed in the following form:
n
X
p(x) = bj lj (x),
j=0

where
x − a0 x − aj−1 x − aj+1 x − an
lj (x) = ··· ··· .
aj − a0 aj − aj−1 aj − aj+1 aj − an