Elementary Linear Algebra 7th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning
ISBN 10: 1-13311-087-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-13311-087-3

Chapter 4 - Vector Spaces - Review Exercises - Page 221: 39

Answer

(a) The nullspace of $A $ consists of the vectors on the following form $$x= \left[\begin{aligned} x_{1}\\ x_{2}\\x_3\\x_4 \end{aligned}\right]= \left[\begin{aligned}3s-t\\-2t\\s\\t \end{aligned}\right] =s\left[\begin{aligned}3 \\0\\1\\0 \end{aligned}\right]+t\left[\begin{aligned}-1\\-2 \\0\\1 \end{aligned}\right].$$ (b) The nullity is $2$. (c) The rank of $A$ is $2$. Since $A$ has $4$ columns, one can see that $$\text{rank}(A)+\text{nullity}(A)=2+2=4.$$

Work Step by Step

Given the matrix $$ A=\left[ \begin {array}{cccc} 2&-3&-6&-4\\ 1&5&-3&11 \\ 2&7&-6&16\end {array} \right] . $$ The reduced row echelon form is $$ \left[ \begin {array}{cccc} 1&0&-3&1\\ 0&1&0&2 \\ 0&0&0&0\end {array} \right] . $$ The corresponding system is $$ \begin{aligned} x_{1} -3x_3+x_4 &=0\\ x_{2} +2x_4 &=0 \end{aligned}. $$ The solution of the above system is $x_1= 3s-t$, $x_2=-2t$,$x_3=s$, $x_4=t$. (a) The nullspace of $A $ consists of the vectors on the following form $$x= \left[\begin{aligned} x_{1}\\ x_{2}\\x_3\\x_4 \end{aligned}\right]= \left[\begin{aligned}3s-t\\-2t\\s\\t \end{aligned}\right] =s\left[\begin{aligned}3 \\0\\1\\0 \end{aligned}\right]+t\left[\begin{aligned}-1\\-2 \\0\\1 \end{aligned}\right].$$ (b) The nullity is $2$. (c) The rank of $A$ is $2$. Since $A$ has $4$ columns, one can see that $$\text{rank}(A)+\text{nullity}(A)=2+2=4.$$
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