Math 54, Fall ’10

Quiz 4, September 22

1. (3 points) Consider the vectors

         
1 −2 5 6 0
 0   1   −3   −1   3 
v1 =  0  , v2 =  −1  ,
   v3 = 
 3 ,
 v4 = 
 2 ,
 v5 = 
 −1  .


1 1 −4 −1 1

Find a basis for the span of {v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 , v5 }.

Solution. We can think of v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 , v5 as the columns of the matrix

 
1 −2 5 6 0
 0 1 −3 −1 3 
A=  0 −1 3
.
2 −1 
1 1 −4 −1 1

Then the span of {v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 , v5 } is just the column space of A, col(A). A basis for this
space is the set of pivot columns, and to find these we need to compute the echelon form
of A. We have
 '&%$
!"#
 '&%$
!"#
'&%$
!"#
 
1 −2 5 6 0 1 −2 5 6 0
R3 =R3 +R2
R =R −R  0 1 −3 −1 3   R4 =R∼4 −3R2  0
 1 −3 −1 3 
A 4 ∼4 1   0 −1 3

2 −1   0 0 0 1 2 
0 3 −9 −7 1 0 0 0 −4 −8
 '&%$
!"#
 0 '&%$
!"#

1 −2 5 6 0

0 '&%$
!"#
R4 =R4 +4R3 1 −3 −1 3 
∼ 
 0
.
0 1 2 
0 0 0 0 0
It follows that the 1st, 2nd and 4th columns of A form a basis for col(A), so B = {v1 , v2 , v4 }
is a basis for Span{v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 , v5 }.

2. (3 points) Let M2×2 be the vector space of all 2 × 2 matrices, and define T : M2×2 → M2×2
by T (A) = A + AT .
a) Show that T is a linear transformation.
b) Let B be any element of M2×2 such that B T = B. Find an A in M2×2 such that
T (A) = B.
c) Describe the kernel of T .

Solution. a) To check that T is linear it suffices to check that T preserves sums and
multiplication by scalars (which in particular implies that T (0) = 0).
Sums:

T (A+B) = (A+B)+(A+B)T = A+B+AT +B T = (A+AT )+(B+B T ) = T (A)+T (B).

1
Multiplication by scalars:

T (c · A) = (c · A)T = c · AT = c · T (A).

b) Take A = 12 B. Then AT = 12 B T = 21 B, so

1 1
T (A) = A + AT = B + B = B.
2 2

c) A matrix  
a b
A=
c d
is in the kernel of T if and only if
       
0 0 a b a c 2a b + c
= A + AT = + = ,
0 0 c d b d b + c 2d

if and only if 2a = b + c = 2d = 0, i.e. a = d = 0 and c = −b. So the kernel of T is the set

  
0 b
ker(T ) = :b∈R .
−b 0

A basis for ker(T ) consists of the matrix

 
0 1
.
−1 0