MA 202 - Advanced Linear Algebra
Problem Set 1 (Vector Spaces)
IIT Dharwad, Spring 2024
(1) Let F = R and V = R2 . Define addition and scalar multiplication on V as follows:
( x, y) + ( x1 , y1 ) = ( x + x1 , 0)
c · ( x, y) = (cx, 0)
Is V with these operations a vector space ?
(2) On Rn define two operations
α⊕β = α−β
c · α = −cα
Is (Rn , ⊕, ·) a vector space ?
(3) Determine which of the following subsets of Rn are subspaces ?
(a) V1 = {( x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) : x1 = 1};
(b) V2 = {( x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) : x1 = 0};
(c) V3 = {( x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) : ∑in=1 xi yi = 0} where (y1 , y2 , . . . , yn ) is a fixed vector in
Rn .
(4) Let V = C (R) = { f : R → R : f is continuous}. Determine which of the following
are subspaces of C (R).
(a) V4 = { f ∈ V : f (1/2) is a rational number};
R1
(b) V5 = { f ∈ V : 0 f (t)dt = 0};
d2 f df
(c) V6 = { f ∈ V : a dt2 + b dt + c f = 0} where a, b, c are fixed real numbers.
(5) Let F be a field and let n be a positive integer n ≥ 2. Let V = Mn×n (F). Which of the
following sets of matrices W in V are subspaces of V ?
(a) W be the set of all invertible matrices in V;
(b) W be the set of all non-invertible matrices in V;
(c) W := { A ∈ V = AB = BA} where B is some fixed matrix in V;
(d) W := { A ∈ V : A2 = A}.
(6) Let W1 and W2 be subspaces of a vector space V such that W1 ∪ W2 is also a subspace.
Prove that either W1 ⊆ W2 or W2 ⊆ W1 .
(7) Let W1 and W2 be subspaces of a vector space V such that W1 + W2 = V and W1 ∩ W2 =
{0}. Prove that for each vector v ∈ V there are unique vectors w1 in W1 and w2 in W2
such that v = w1 + w2 .
(8) Let V be the vector space of all functions from R to R; let Ve be the subset of even
functions, that is f ( x ) = f (− x ); let Vo be the subset of odd functions, that is f (− x ) =
− f ( x ). Prove that Ve and Vo are subspaces of V.
(9) Find a basis of the subspace of Rn of the solutions of the equation x1 + · · · + xn = 0.
(10) Show that the vector space F[ X ] of all polynomials over a field F is not finitely gener-
ated.
(11) Is the vector space C (R) finite dimensional ?
1
2
(12) Show that the set {1, ( x − a), ( x − a)2 , . . . , ( x − a)n } for a fixed a ∈ F is a basis of the
vector space Pn (F) of all polynomials with coefficients in F of degree atmost n.
(13) Let u1 , . . . , un be linearly independent vectors in a vector space V. Show that any vec-
tor in L(u1 , . . . , un ) is a unique linear combination of u1 , . . . , un .
(14) Describe all the subspaces of R3 .
(15) Let U and V be subspaces of a vector space W. Suppose that U ∩ V = {0} and
dim W = dim U + dim V. Show that for any w ∈ W there exist unique vectors u ∈ U
and v ∈ V such that w = u + v.
(16) What is the dimension of the Q-vector space R ?
(17) Determine whether (1, 1, 1) ∈ L{(1, 3, 4), (4, 0, 1), (3, 1, 2)}.
(18) Prove that every subspace W of a finitely generated vector space V is finitely gener-
ated. Prove that dim W ≤ dim V with equality if and only if V = W.
(19) Let F be a field with two elements. Let V be a two dimensional vector space over F.
Count the number of elements of V, the number of subspaces of V and the number of
different bases.
(20) Let S and T be two dimensional subspaces of R3 . Show that dim(S ∩ T ) ≥ 1.
(21) Find bases of the following vector spaces:
(a) the vector space of all n × n real upper triangular matrices;
(b) the vector space of all real n × n symmetric matrices;
(c) the vector space of all real n × n skew-symmetric matrices;
(d) the vector space of all homogeneous polynomials of degree d in n variables to-
gether with the zero polynomial.
(22) Let Pn [ X ] denote the vector space consisting of the zero polynomial and all real poly-
nomials of degree ≤ n, where n is fixed. Let S be a subset of all polynomials p( x ) in
Pn [ x ] satisfying the following conditions. Check whether S is a subspace; if so, com-
pute dimension of S.
′′
(i) p(0) = 0; (ii) p is an odd function; (iii) p(0) = p (0) = 0.
(23) Examine whether the following subsets of the set of real valued functions on R are
linearly dependent or independent. Compute the dimension of the subspace spanned
by each set
(a) {1 + t, (1 + t)2 }; (b) { x, | x |}.
(24) Examine whether the following sets are linearly independent.
(a) {( a, b), (c, d)} ⊂ R2 , with ad − bc ̸= 0.
(b) {(1 + i, 2i, 2), (1, 1 + i, 1 − i )} in C3 .
(c) For α1 , . . . , αk distinct real numbers, the set {v1 , . . . , vk } ⊆ Rk where
vi = (1, αi , α2i , . . . , αik−1 ).
(25) Let V = C (R) = { f : R → R : f is continuous} be the vector space. Show that the
following sets are linearly independent subset of V.
(a) {1, t};
(b) {t, t2 };
(c) {t, t4 };
(d) {et , t};
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(e) {tet , e2t };
(f) {sin t, cos t};
(g) {t, sin t};
(h) {eα1 x , eα2 x , · · · , eαn x } for distinct real numbers α1 , α2 , . . . , αn ;
(i) {1, cos x, cos 2x, . . . , cos nx };
(j) {1, sin x, sin 2x, . . . , sin nx };
(k) {e x , xe x , . . . , x n e x }.
(26) Extend the following subsets S to a basis of the corresponding vector space V:
(a) S = {(1, 1)} and V = R2 (b) S = {(1, 0, 1), (0, 1, 1)} and V = R3
(27) For the following subsets S ⊆ R3 , what is L(S) ? Find a basis of L(S).
(i) S = {(4, −3, 7), (1, 9, −2), (7, 11, 6)}
(ii) S = {(1, 1, 0), (0, 1, 1), (1, 0, −1)}
(28) Find a maximal linearly independent subset of the following sets:
(a) {(1, 4, 2), (1, 1, 0), (1, 0, 1), (0, 1, 1)} ∈ R3
(b) {(1, 0), (0, 1), (1, 1)} ⊆ R2
