Assignment 6

Recall that a matrix is in its row-echelon form if each row is either zero, or begins with
a 1, and below each such 1 there are only zeroes. Similarly a matrix is in its column-
echelon form if each column is either zero, or begins with a 1, and for each such 1 there
are only zeroes to the right. Check the boxes corresponding to which true statements
are given.

Problem 1. Consider the following matrix.

 
1 0 0
 
A=0 1 0

0 0 1

(a) The matrix A is in its row-echelon form.

Proof. Since the first non zero entry in each row is 1 and below each such 1 there are
only zeros, the given matrix is in its row-echelon form. 

(b) The matrix A is in its column-echelon form.

Proof. Since the first nonzero entry in each column is 1 and for each such 1 there are
only zeros to the right, the given matrix is in its column-echelon form. 

(c) The matrix A is neither in its row-echelon form nor in its column-echelon form.

Proof. The matrix A is both in its row-echelon form and column-echelon form. 

Problem 2. Consider the following matrix. [1]

 
0 1 0 0
 
A= 0 π 0 1 

1 0 0 0

(a) The matrix A is in its row-echelon form

Proof. Since there is a non zero entry below 1 in the second column corresponding
to the first non-zero entry 1 in the first row, the given matrix is not in its row-echelon
form. 

(b) The matrix A is in its column-echelon form.

 Proof. Since each column is either zero or the first nonzero entry in each column
is 1 and for each such 1 there are only zeros to the right, the given matrix is in its
column-echelon form. 

(c) The matrix A is neither in its row-echelon form nor in its column-echelon form.

Proof. The given matrix is in its column-echelon form. 

Problem 3.
Consider the following matrix.
 
0 0 0 1 0
 
0 0 0 0 1
 
A = 0 1 0 0 0
 
 
1 0 0 0 0
 
0 0 1 0 2

(a) The matrix A is in its row-echelon form.

Proof. Since there is a non zero entry below 1 in the last column corresponding to
the first non-zero entry 1 in the second row, the given matrix is not in its row-echelon
form. 

(b) The matrix A is in its column-echelon form.

Proof. In the third column not all entry to the right of 1 is zero, the given matrix is
not in its column-echelon form. 

(c) The matrix A is neither in its row-echelon form nor in its column-echelon form.

Proof. From (a) and (b) the matrix is neither in its row echelon form nor in its col-
umn echelon form. 

Problem 4. Check the boxes corresponding to which true statements are given.
(a) An elementary matrix is always square.

Proof. An elementary matrix is obtained from an identity matrix by performing row

or column operations. Hence it is always square. 

(b) The product of elementary matrices is always an elementary matrix.

 Proof. We have proved that every invertible matrix can be obtained as a product of
elementary matrices. Hence the given statement is false. 

(c) The inverse of an elementary matrix is an elementary matrix

Proof. This has been discussed in the lectures. The statement is true. 

(d) The rank of a matrix is equal to the number of its non-zero columns

Proof. Consider the matrix

à !
1 1
.
1 1

This matrix has 2 non-zero columns. However, the rank of the matrix is 1. Hence the
given statement is false 

(e) The rank of a matrix is equal to the maximum number of linearly independent rows
in the matrix.

Proof. The rank of a matrix is, by definition, equal to the dimension of the row-space
of the matrix which is equal to the maximum number of linearly independent rows
in the matrix. Hence the given statement is true. 

Compute the rank of the following matrices :

Problem 5.
 
1 1 0
 
A=
0 1 1

1 2 1

Then the rank(A) =

Proof. Since the rank of the matrix is the dimension of its row space, we have rank(A) =
dim(W ), where W = span{(1, 1, 0), (0, 1, 1), (1, 2, 1)} in R3 . It can be easily seen that the
rank of W is 2. Hence the rank(A) = 2. 
Problem 6.
 
1 2 0
 
B =
 0 1 1 

0 0 1
Then the rank(B ) =

Proof. Since the rank of the matrix is the dimension of its column space, we have rank(B ) =
dim(W ), where W = span{(1, 0, 0), (2, 1, 0), (0, 1, 1)} in R3 . It can be easily seen that the
rank of W is 3. Hence the rank(B ) = 3. 

Problem 7. Does there exist a linear transformation T : R3 −→ P 2 (R) and ordered bases
β β0
α, α0 of R3 and β, β0 of P 2 (R) such that the matrix of T is given by [T ]α = A and [T ]α0 = B .
Yes
No
β β0 β
Proof. Notice that [T ]α = C [T ]α0 E , where C = [I ]β0 and E = [I ]α
0
α . Since C and E are
β β0
invertible matrices, we have rank([T ]α ) = rank([T ]α0 ). Since the rank of A is not equal to
the rank of B , there does not exist a linear transformation T : R3 −→ P 2 (R) and ordered
β
bases α, α0 of R3 and β, β0 of P 2 (R) such that the matrix of T is given by [T ]α = A and
β0
[T ]α0 = B . 

Problem 8. Check the boxes corresponding to which true statements are given. [4]
(a) Let A and B be n × n matrices. Then det(A + B ) = det(A) + det(B ).

Proof. Consider the case when A = I 2 and B = −I 2 where I 2 is the identity matrix of
size 2. Then det(A + B ) = 0 whereas det(A) + det(B ) = 2. 

(b) Let A be an m×n matrix such that A is in the row-echelon form and column-echelon
form at the same time. Then the entries in A are either 0 or 1.

Proof. Let the number of non-zero columns of A be equal to k. Let j 1 be the first
non-zero column of A. Let the first non-zero entry in this column be at row i 1 . Since
A is in its column echelon form, this entry is 1 and every entry to the right of this
entry in row i 1 is 0. Also, every entry below this entry in column j 1 is zero since this
is the first entry in row i 1 and the matrix is also in its row-echelon form. Hence the
only non-zero entry in row i 1 and column j 1 is 1 in the (i 1 , j 1 ) entry.
 Let j 2 be the next non-zero column after j 1 and the first non-zero entry in this
column be at i 2 . Clearly i 2 6= i 1 since the entry (i 1 , j 2 ) is zero from the previous para-
graph. Also, by a similar argument as above, the only non-zero entry in row i 2 and
column j 2 is 1 in the (i 2 , j 2 ) entry.
A similar argument can be used to prove that every non-zero column has only 1 as
a non-zero entry. An exactly similar similar argument can be used to conclude that
every non-zero row has only 1 as a non-zero entry. Hence the entries in A are either
0 or 1. 

(c) If A is an n × n matrix with rank n, then the row-echelon form of A is the identity
matrix I n

Proof. The matrix

à !
0 1
1 0
is in its row-echelon form and is not the identity matrix. 

(d) The function det : M 2×2 (R) −→ R is a linear transformation.

Proof. We have already seen above that det(A+B ) is not necessarily equal to det(A)+
det(B ). Hence det is not a linear transformation. 

(e) If two rows of a square matrix A are identical, then det(A) = 0

Proof. The statement is true and has been discussed in the lectures. 

Compute the following

 
1 1 0
 
Problem 9. Let A be the matrix given by 
0 1 1 . Then rank(A) is

1 1 1

Proof. The rank(A) is 3 since the dimension of the column space is 3. 

 
2 3 −2
 
Problem 10. Let A be the matrix given by 
5 1 −3 . Then det(A) is

3 −4 −1
Proof. By using the cofactor expansion, the determinant of the matrix A is 8. 

Problem 11. Let

   
3a 1 3a 2 3a 3 a1 a2 a3
   
A=
 3b 1 3b 2 3b 3
 and B = b 1 b 2 b 3  .
  
3c 1 3c 2 3c 3 c1 c2 c3
Suppose that det(B ) 6= 0. If det(A) = k det(B ), then k =

Proof. The determinant behaves under row-operations. Notice that the matrix A is ob-
tained from B by the following row operations : R 1 → 3R 1 , R 2 → 3R 2 , R 3 → 3R 3 . Each
of these row operations is type II and the determinant of the elementary matrices in-
volved is 3 in each stage. Hence the determinant gets multiplied by 27. Hence det(A) =
27 det(B ) 

Problem 12. Let

   
b1 + c1 b2 + c2 b3 + c3 a1 a2 a3
   
A=
 a1 + c1 a2 + c2 a3 + c3 
 and B = b 1 b 2 b 3  .
 
a1 + b1 a2 + b2 a3 + b3 c1 c2 c3
Suppose that det(B ) 6= 0. If det(A) = k det(B ), then k =

Proof. We shall perform elementary row operations on A to obtain the matrix B . Per-
forming the following row operations, we get
 
b1 + c1 b2 + c2 b3 + c3
 
E 1 : R 2 → R 2 − R 1 and E 2 : R 3 → R 3 + R 2 
a 1 − b 1 a 2 − b 2 a 3 − b 3  .

2a 1 2a 2 2a 3

 
b1 + c1 b2 + c2 b3 + c3
1  
E 3 : R 3 → R 3 and E 4 : R 2 → R 2 − R 3  −b 1 −b 2 −b 3  .
2 
a1 a2 a3

 
c1 c2 c3
 
E 5 : R 1 → R 1 + R 2 and E 6 : R 2 → (−1)R 2 
 b 1 b 2 b 3
.

a1 a2 a3
Let E 7 be the elementary operation which exchanges row 3 and row 1. Then we have
B = E 7 E 6 E 5 E 4 E 3 E 2 E 1 A. We have det(E 3 ) = 12 , det(E 6 ) = −1 and det(E 7 ) = −1. Hence we
get, det(B ) = 21 det(A). 

Problem 13. Check the boxes corresponding to which true statements are given.
(a) The determinant of an upper triangular matrix equals the product of its diagonal
entries

Proof. This result can be proved by induction on the size of the matrix. For n = 1, the
result follows. Assume the result proved for upto k − 1. By considering the co-factor
expansion of the determinant along the first column, we get det(A) = a 11 det( g A 11 )
A 11 is an upper triangular matrix obtained by deleting the first row and first
where g
column. No by applying the induction hypothesis, the result follows. Hence the
statement is true 

(b) There exist n × n matrices A and B such that AB = I n and such that B A 6= I n .

Proof. If AB = I n , then the matrix A has non-zero determinant. Hence by a theorem

proved in the lectures, A is invertible and hence there exists B 0 such that B 0 A = I n .
Then B 0 = B 0 I n = B 0 (AB ) = (B 0 A)B = I n B = B . Hence B A = I n . Hence the given
statement is false. 

(c) If A and B are similar matrices (i.e. there exists an invertible matrix Q such that
A = QBQ −1 ), then det(A) = det(B ).

Proof. Since A = QBQ −1 , we have

det(A) = det(Q) det(B ) det(Q −1 )

= det(Q) det(Q −1 ) det(B )

= det(QQ −1 ) det(B )

= det(I n ) det(B )

= det(B ).

Hence the given statement is true 

(d) Let A be an n × n invertible matrix. Then rows of A are linearly independent.

Proof. Since A is invertible, the rank of A is equal to n. Hence the dimension of
the row space is n. The rows of A form a spanning set of size n of the row-space
which has dimension n. Hence, the rows are also linearly independent. Hence, the
statement is true.