Section, Instructor

Student Number

Name (printed)

1 of 4

QUEENS UNIVERSITY APSC174 Midterm Test #1 Monday February 13, 2012

INSTRUCTIONS This test is 80 MINUTES in length and consists of 3 questions. Answer all questions, writing clearly in the space provided. If you need more room, continue to answer on the back of the previous page, providing clear directions to the marker. SHOW ALL YOUR WORK, clearly and in order, if you wish to receive full credit. No textbook, lecture note, calculator, computer, or other aid, is allowed. Good luck! FOR MARKERS USE ONLY Question Mark Available Received 1 20 2 20 3 5 TOTAL 45

Section, Instructor

Student Number

Name (printed)

2 of 4

1. Consider the real vector space (R3 , +, ), and let W be the subset of R3 dened by: W = { (x, y, z ) R3 : x + y = z and 3x y = z 1 }; Prove whether or not W is a vector subspace of (R3 , +, ). For W to be a vector subspace of (R3 , +, ), the following three conditions have to be met: 1. The zero vector 0 of R3 , i.e. the triple (0, 0, 0) should be an element of W, 2. for any elements (x1 , y1, z1 ) and (x2 , y2 , z2 ) of W, their sum (x1 , y1 , z1 ) + (x2 , y2 , z2 ) should also be an element of W, 3. for any real number and any element (x, y, z ) of W, their product (x, y, z ) should also be an element of W. Let us now verify these conditions in order: For the zero vector (0, 0, 0), we have 0 + 0 = 0, whereas 3(0) 0 = 0 1 = 1, i.e. the second relation in the denition of W is not satised by the zero vector (0, 0, 0) of R3 . Hence, the zero vector (0, 0, 0) of R3 is not an element of W, i.e. (0, 0, 0) / W, and 3 hence, we conclude that W is not a vector subspace of (R , +, ).

Section, Instructor

Student Number

Name (printed)

3 of 4

2. Consider again the real vector space (R3 , +, ), as in the previous problem. Dene now the following vectors in R3 : v1 = (1, 1, 0), v2 = (1, 2, 0), v3 = (3, 1, 0). (a) Prove whether or not the vector v3 is a linear combination of the vectors v1 , v2 . (b) Prove whether or not {v2 , v3 } is a linearly independent subset of R3 . (c) Prove whether or not {v1 , v2 , v3 } is a linearly independent subset of R3 .

(a) (7 points) The vector v3 is a linear combination of the vectors v1 , v2 if and only if there exist , R such that v3 = v1 + v2 . We try to solve for , from the above equation; if no such , do exist that satisfy the above equation, then this will show that v3 is not a linear combination of v1 , v2 . If, on the other hand, such , do exist, then we can express v3 as a linear combination of v1 , v2 . Now, the equation v3 = v1 + v2 is equivalent to the equation (3, 1, 0) = (1, 1, 0) + (1, 2, 0) which is equivalent to (3, 1, 0) = ( + , + 2, 0), which is equivalent to the system of linear equations + = 3, + 2 = 1, 0 = 0, = 5, = 2. This shows that we have v3 = 5 v1 2 v2 , which shows that v3 is indeed a linear combination of v1 , v2 .

which, after solving (by rst subtracting the rst equation from the second equation), yields the solution

(b) (7 points) Let , R be any real numbers such that v2 + v3 = 0R3 ; if it then follows necessarily that and must be both 0, then this will show linear independence of {v2 , v3 }; if, on the other, there exist , with at least one of them non-zero and such that the above equation is satised, then this will show linear dependence of {v2 , v3 }. We begin therefore with the equation v2 + v3 = 0R3 ; this is equivalent to (1, 2, 0) + (3, 1, 0) = (0, 0, 0), which is equivalent to ( + 3, 2 + , 0) = (0, 0, 0), which is equivalent to + 3 = 0, 2 + = 0, 0 = 0,

and solving this system (by rst subtracting twice the rst equation from the second equation) yields = = 0. We have therefore shown that for any , R, the relation v2 + v3 = 0R3 , implies necessarily that = = 0. This proves that {v2 , v3 } is a linearly independent subset of R3 . (c) (6 points) We showed in (a) that v3 was a linear combination of v1 , v2 ; as a result, the subset {v1 , v2 , v3 } is a linearly dependent subset of R3 .

Section, Instructor

Student Number

Name (printed)

4 of 4

3. Let (V, +, ) be a real vector space, and let v1 , v2 V be two elements of V. Assume {v1 , v2 } is a linearly independent subset of V. Let now w1 , w2 V be dened by w1 = 2 v1 + v2 w2 = 3 v1 Prove that {w1 , w2 } is a linearly independent subset of V. Let , R be any real numbers such that w 1 + w 2 = 0V ; we have to show that this necessarily implies = = 0. Now, the equation w 1 + w 2 = 0V is equivalent to the equation (2 v1 + v2 ) + (3 v1 ) = 0V , which is equivalent (after rearranging and factoring terms) to the equation (2 + 3 ) v1 + v2 = 0V ; We have assumed that the vectors v1 , v2 are linearly independent. This last equation therefore implies that 2 + 3 = 0, = 0, which, after solving for , , yields = = 0. To recapitulate, we have shown that for any , R, the equation w 1 + w 2 = 0V implies = = 0. This proves that {w1 , w2 } is a linearly independent subset of V.