Practice exercises for Quiz  Linear Algebra I (-nyc-/) Winter 

Questions
Question . — Solve the following system for x3 only using Cramer’s rule.
2x1 − 4x3 + x4 = 0
3x1 − 7x2 + x3 − x4 = −1
5x1 − x2 = 1
x2 + 2x4 = 5
 
 1 −2 4
 1 6.
Question . — Let A =  3
 2 
k 3 2
a. Evaluate det(A).
b. For which values of k does A−1 exist?
c. Compute the adjoint of A.
d. Give a formula for A−1 when it exists.
Question . — Let
     
1 1 1
1 1
 
0
 
u =   , v =   and w =  
0 1
 
1
 
1 1 1
a. Find the area of the parallelogram formed by u and v.
b. Find the volume of the tetrahedron whose vertices are the origin, u, v and w.
c. Find the distance between u and Span{v}.
d. Find the distance between w and Span{u, v}.
Question . — You are given the points A(1, 0, 3), B(−2, 1, −1), C(−2, 3, 3) and D(3, 1, 6) in R3 .
a. Find the volume of the parallelepiped with one vertex at A and adjacent vertices at B, C and D.
b. Find the area of triangle ABC, and a normal equation of the plane containing triangle ABC.
c. Find the point on the plane containing triangle ABC which is closest to D.
d. Find the distance between the line AB and the line CD.
e. Find the distance between the point D and the line AB.
−−→ −−→ −−→ −−→
f. Let n = 61 AB × AC and let V = Span{ AB , AC }. Compute det(T ), where T : V → V is defined by T (y) = n × y.

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Practice exercises for Quiz  Linear Algebra I (-nyc-/) Winter 
(solutions)

Solution to Question . — Let

   
2 0 −4 1   0 
3 −7 1 −1 −1
   
A =   and b =   ;
5 −1 0 0   1 

0 1 0 2 5
then by Cramer’s rule, x3 = det A3 (b)/ det A provided that A is non-singular. Now
2 0 −4 1 14 −28 0 −3
14 −28 −3
3 −7 1 −1 3 −7 1 −1
det A = = =− 5 −1 0
5 −1 0 0 5 −1 0 0
0 1 2
0 1 0 2 0 1 0 2
−1 0 −28 −3
= −14 +5 = 28 − 265 = −237,
1 2 1 2
and
2 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
5 −7 −1 5 −7 −1
3 −7 −1 −1 5 −7 −1 −1
det A3 (b) = = = 5 −1 1 = 10 −8 0
5 −1 1 0 5 −1 1 0
−4 1 5 21 −34 0
0 1 5 2 −4 1 5 2
10 −8 5 2
= = −4 = −4(85 − 42) = −172.
21 34 21 17
172
Therefore, x3 = 237 .

Solution to Question . — a. Adding two times row 2 to row 1, adding −3 times row 2 to row 3 and then exploiting the
isolated 1 in row 2, column 2, yields
1 −2 4 7 0 16
7 16 7 1
det A = 3 1 6 = 3 1 6 = 2 = 16 2 = 16(2 − k 2 ).
k − 9 −16 k − 9 −1
k2 3 2 k 2 − 9 0 −16
√
b. From part a, A−1 exists if, and only if, k , ± 2; i.e., provided det(A) , 0.
c. The matrix of cofactors of A and the adjoint of A are
 2   
−16 6k − 6 −k 2 + 9   −16 16 −16
   
cof(A) =  16 −4k 2 + 2 −2k 2 − 3 and adj(A) =  6k 2 − 6 −4k 2 + 2 6  .
   2 
−16 6 7 −k + 9 −2k 2 − 3 7
√
d. If k , ± 2 then
 
 −16 16 −16
−1 1 1  2 2 
A = adj(A) =  6k − 6 −4k + 2 6 
det(A) 16(2 − k 2 ) −k 2 + 9 −2k 2 − 3 7


(using the classical adjoint formula for the inverse of A).

 
Solution to Question . — a. If A = u v then
3 3
det(AT A) =
= 3,
4 3
p √
and the area of the parallelogram
 formed by u and v is det(AT A) = 3.
b. If B = u v w , then
3 3 2
det(BT B) = 3 4 3 = 2,
2 3 3
1√
so the volume of the tetrahedron in question is 6 2.
c. The distance between u and Span{v} is equal to the area of the parallelogram formed by u and v, divided by the length of
v, which is r r
det(AT A) 3 1√
= = 3.
v v
T 4 2
Practice exercises for Quiz  Linear Algebra I (-nyc-/) Winter 
(solutions)

d. The distance between w and Span{u, v} is equal to

s r
det(BT B) 2 2√
= = 3.
det(AT A) 3 3
Solution to Question . — Let
       
−3 −3 2 5
−−→  
−−→   −−−→   −−−→  
v = AC =  3  , w = AD = 1 and x = CD = −2 .
u = AB =  1  ,
       
−4 0 3 3
−−→ −−→ −−−→
a. The volume of the parallelepiped formed by AB , AC and AD has volume
    !
  −3 −3 2 −2 0 3 −2 3
   
det u v w = det  1 3 1 = det  1 3 1 = 3 det = 18.
    −4 3
−4 0 3 −4 0 3
b. Since        
−3 −3  12   2 
       
u × v =  1  ×  3  =  12  = 6n, where n =  2  ,
       
−4 0 −6 −1
−−−→
the area of triangle ABC is 12 ku × vk = 3knk = 9 and $ is defined by nT x = nT OA , or 2x + 2y − z = −1.
c. The point on the plane containing 4ABC which is closest to D is
     
−−−→ −−−→ nT w 3  2   7 
     
OD − projn w = OD − T n = 1 − 13  2  = 31  1  .
n n  
6
 
−1
 
19
d. Since the lines AB and CD are not parallel, the distance between them is the length of the orthogonal projection of v onto
their common normal  
 −5 
 
m = u × x = −11 .
 
1
So the distance between AB to CD is
|vT m| √
kprojm (v)k = = √18
147
= 76 3.
kmk
e. The distance between D and the line AB is equal to the area of the parallelogram formed by u and w, divided by the
length of u. Now
     
−3 2  7 
     
u × w =  1  × 1 =  1  ,
     
−4 3 −5
so the distance between D and the line AB is equal to
p √
ku × wk 72 + 12 + (−5)2 75 5 √
=p = √ = 26 78.
kuk 2 2
(−3) + 1 + (−4) 2 26
(It is also equal to the length of perpu w.)
f. The vectors    
1 0
   
0 and 1
   
2 2
form a basis of V ,
                       
1  2  1  4  1 0 0  2  0  5  1 0
                       
n × 0 =  2  × 0 = −5 = 4 0 − 5 1 and n × 1 =  2  × 1 = −4 = 5 0 − 4 1 .
                       
2 −1 2 −2 2 2 2 −1 2 2 2 2
Thus, the matrix of T relative to this basis is
!
4 5 4 5
and = −16 + 25 = 9.
−5 −4 −5 −4
Therefore, the determinant of T is 9.
Practice exercises for Quiz  Linear Algebra I (-nyc-/) Winter 
(solutions)

Note. — This could also be seen geometrically by observing that T rotates vectors in V by a right angle and scales them by a
factor of knk. It follows from this that the determinant of T is knk2 = 9.