Problem Sheet 1

With Hints

Fields
√
1. Let S be the set of all real numbers of the form a + b 2 with a and b being rational
numbers. Does S form a field? Check whether S satisfies all the axioms for a field under
’usual’ operations of addition and multiplication.
Hint : Verify if all axioms are satisfied
2. Consider the set R2 , i.e., the set of all (x, y) such that x, y ∈ R.

(a) If addition is defined as (x, y) + (z, w) = (x + z, y + w), and multiplication as (x, y) 

(z, w) = (xz, yw). show that R2 is not a field? Which of the axioms are violated?
Hint : What is the additive identity? Does every scalar other than the additive
identity have a multiplicative inverse?
(b) Would the result change if x, y, z, w are taken as complex numbers (i.e., C2 instead
of R2 )?
(c) Can the multiplication be redefined to make R2 a field?

3. Do the set of all polynomials with real coefficients form a field? What if the coefficients
were restricted to be rational numbers? What if they were restricted to be integers?
Hint : The problem typically starts with multiplicative inverses.
4. The notation Z/pZ, for any integer p ≥ 2, denotes the set of reminders obtained by dividing
any integer by the integer p. Thus, Z/pZ = {0, 1, 2, · · · , p − 1}.
Check whether Z/pZ is a field for p = 2, p = 5 and p = 6, if the addition and multiplication
operations are defined as x ⊕ y = (x + y) mod p and x  y = (xy) mod y, respectively
for x, y ∈ Z/pZ.

Vector Spaces
1. Show that all the solutions of a linear constant coefficient homogenous differential equation
dn x dn−1 x dx
+ an−1 + · · · + a1 + a0 x = 0
dtn dtn−1 dt
forms a vector space.
Hint : Write the general form of the solution and proceed
2. Do the set of all complex numbers of the form z = x + iy, with x, y ∈ Z, form a vector
space?
Hint : Sometimes, what is unsaid is the hint. Assume it is a vector space. Then, what
could be the field over which it is a vector space?

1
 3. Sometimes a subset of a vector space is also a vector space (a subspace). Consider the
vector space R2 with an arbitrary vector being v = (v1 , v2 ). Which of these subsets of R2
are vector spaces?
(a) v1 = 0.
(b) v1 = 0 or v2 = 0.
(c) v1 + v2 = 0.
(d) v1 − v2 = 1.
4. Consider the vector space of all polynomials (P). Which of the following subsets of P form
a vector space. Why?
(a) All polynomials x(t) of degree 3.
(b) 2x(0) = x(1).
(c) x(t) > 0 for 0 ≤ t ≤ 1.
(d) x(t) = x(1 − t) for all t.
Hint : Just see if the ’vectors’ are closed under addition. And do not forget to check if the
’identities’ exist in the sets

Linear Dependence, Basis and Dimension

1. If vectors x, y, z and u in P are defined as x(t) = 1, y(t) = t, z(t) = t2 and u(t) =
1 + t + t2 , then show that x, y, z, u are linearly dependent, but any three of them are
linearly independent.
2. Show that all the bases of a subspace S of Rn have the same number of elements which is
equal to the dimension of the subspace.
Hint : Similarity Transformation between two bases with unequal number of elements!!
3. (a) Under what conditions on the scalar ξ are the vectors (ξ, 1, 0), (1, ξ, 1) and (0, 1, ξ) in
R3 linearly dependent?
(b) Under what conditions on the scalar ξ are the vectors (0, 1, ξ), (ξ, 0, 1) and (ξ, 1, 1 + ξ)
in R3 linearly dependent?
4. Prove that if R is considered to be a rational vector space (i.e., a vector space over the
field of rational numbers), then the necessary and sufficient conditions that the vectors 1
and ζ in R be linearly independent is that the real number ζ is irrational.
In this case, what is the dimension of the rational vector space R?
P
Hint : We want to represent any arbitrary real number r as r = qi vi where qi are
rational (scalars) and vi are the bases (fixed real numbers).
     
 1 1 0 
5. (a) Let S1 = span  1  ,  2  ,  1  . Determine dimension of S1 .
0 1 1
 
     
 0 1 2 
(b) Let S2 = span  1  ,  4  ,  6  . Compute a basis for (S1 + S2 ) and S1 ∩ S2 .
0 1 2
 
Verify
dim(S1 + S2 ) = dim S1 + dim S2 − dim (S1 ∩ S2 )

2
 6. Suppose that x and y are vectors and M is a subspace in a vector space V; let H be the
subspace spanned by M and x, and let K be the subspace spanned by M and y. Prove
that if y is in H but not in M, then x is in K.
Hint : ’Where’ is y if it is in H but not in M??

Transformations and Matrices

d
1. Let P3 be the set of all polynomials (in x) of degree less than or equal to 3. Let dx be the
derivative map which acts on a polynomial in P3 and gives out a polynomial in P3 .
d
: P3 → P3
dx
(a) Prove that this map is a linear transformation.
(b) Find the matrix representation for it. (Be careful about properly defining what the
matrix is supposed to convey)
(c) Find the basis for the image and kernel of this matrix.

2. Let A ∈ Rn×n be a matrix. Show that if λ is an eigenvalue of matrix A, then for any
polynomial p(x), p(λ) is an eigenvalue of p(A). Moreover, if v is the eigenvector associated
with the eigenvalue λ, then v is also an eigenvector of p(A) corresponding to the eigenvalue
p(λ).
3. Suppose that for each x in P, the function y is defined by
R +2
(a) y(x) = −1 x(t) dt
R2
(b) y(x) = 0 (x(t))2 dt
R1
(c) y(x) = 0 t2 x(t) dt
R1
(d) y(x) = 0 x(t2 ) dt
In which of the cases is y(x) a linear transformation?
4. Let M be the subspace consisting of all those vectors (ξ1 , ξ2 , · · · , ξn , ξn+1 , · · · , ξ2n ) in R2n
for which ξi = 0, i = 1, · · · , n, and N be the subspace of all those vectors for which
ξi = ξn+i , i = 1, · · · , n.
Is N the complement of M? (i.e., M ∩ N = {0v }, and M + N = M ⊕ N = R2n )
Hint : Simply check the intersection and the direct sum conditions.
5. Construct three subspaces M, N1 and N2 of a vector space V such that M⊕N1 = M⊕N1 =
V but N1 6= N2
What is the geometric picture corresponding to this situation?
6. Prove that if V is a finite dimensional vector space then the set of all linear transformations
on V (i.e., all T : V → V) is also a finite dimensional vector space. Find its dimension.
Hint : How do you represent a general linear transformation from a vector space on to
itself ? How many ’independent’ variables are there in this representation?
7. Suppose M is an m-dimensional subspace of an n-dimensional vector space V. Prove that
the set of those linear transformations A on V for which Ax = 0 whenever x is in M, is a
subspace of all linear transformations on V. Find the dimension of that subspace.
Hint : Answer to this is related to the answer to the previous question + the basis vectors
of M