Coordinate Vectors - Linear Algebra
- Let be a basis for . If a vector has the coordinate vector , what is the vector in the standard basis? Answer: The vector is the linear combination of the basis vectors using the components of as coefficients. Let . Then . .
- Let be a basis for a vector space . Consider a second basis . If a vector has the coordinate vector , what is its coordinate vector ? Answer: We are given . By the definition of a coordinate vector, this means . We need to express as a linear combination of the vectors in . Distributing the scalars, we get . Combining like terms, we have . Therefore, the coordinate vector of relative to the basis is .
- In the vector space of matrices, consider the basis . If and , what is ? Answer: First, since has entries 2, -1, 3, 4 in positions (1,1), (1,2), (2,1), (2,2) respectively. Next, , so . Then . Therefore, .
- Let be the vector space of symmetric matrices over . Consider the basis for . If and , what is ? Answer: First, compute . To find the coordinate vector, we express this matrix as where . Comparing entries: , , . Therefore, . Choice B swaps the second and third coordinates. Choices C and D have the wrong first coordinate.
- Let be a subspace of the vector space of polynomials of degree at most 3. Consider the basis for . If , determine whether and, if so, find . Answer: First, check if by evaluating : . Since , we have . Therefore, it's impossible to express as a linear combination of the basis vectors in , since every vector in must satisfy . Choice B would give , which is not equal to . Choices C and D can be similarly eliminated by direct computation, and more importantly, they're conceptually wrong since doesn't belong to the subspace .
- Let be a basis for . What is the coordinate vector of the vector relative to ? Answer: The coordinate vector must satisfy the equation . This corresponds to the linear system and . Solving this system, we can multiply the first equation by -2 to get . Adding this to the second equation yields , so . Substituting this back into the first equation gives , which simplifies to , so . Thus, the coordinate vector is .
- Let be a basis for . The coordinate vector of is . What is the value of the component ? Answer: 3 We must solve the vector equation . This yields the system of linear equations: 1. 2. 3. From equation (1), . From equation (3), . Substitute both into equation (2): . This simplifies to , which gives , so . Now we can find using equation (3): , which means . (For completeness, ). The question asks for the value of , which is 3.
- Let be a basis for . The coordinate mapping is defined by . Let be the matrix whose columns are and . Which of the following statements about this mapping is FALSE? Answer: For every vector in , the equation holds. The coordinate mapping is a linear transformation that is both one-to-one and onto (an isomorphism). Therefore, statements A, B, and C are true. Statement A claims it's one-to-one and linear. Statement B is the definition of linearity. Statement C claims the mapping is onto and unique, which is also true. The relationship between a vector , its coordinate vector , and the change-of-coordinates matrix is given by the equation . To find the coordinate vector, we must solve for it: . Therefore, . Statement D incorrectly claims , so it is false.
- Let the set be used to represent vectors in . For the vector , what is its coordinate vector ? Answer: The coordinate vector is not uniquely defined because is not a basis. For to be a basis, its vectors must be linearly independent. However, , so the vectors are linearly dependent. Thus, is not a basis for . To find the coordinate vector, we solve . This simplifies to , which means . This is one equation with two variables, so there are infinitely many solutions for . For example, and are both valid solutions. Because the representation is not unique, the coordinate vector is not uniquely defined.
- In , consider the basis where and . A vector has coordinate vector . Which of the following vectors represents in the standard basis? Answer: The vector is found by taking the linear combination of the basis vectors with the coefficients from its coordinate vector. The relationship is . Substituting the basis vectors: Performing the scalar multiplication and vector subtraction: Thus, the vector in the standard basis is .
- In the vector space of polynomials of degree at most 2, consider the basis . What is the coordinate vector of the polynomial relative to ? Answer: We want to find scalars such that . Expanding the left side gives . By equating coefficients of like powers of , we get a system of equations: 1. 2. 3. From (1), . Substituting into (2), , so . Substituting and into (3), , so , which gives . The coordinate vector is .
- Let be an ordered basis for a vector space . What is the coordinate vector of the vector relative to the basis ? Answer: The coordinate vector is the set of coefficients such that . By the definition of a basis, the vectors are linearly independent. Therefore, the only unique solution to this equation is , , , and . The resulting coordinate vector is the standard basis vector .
- In the vector space of matrices, consider the ordered basis . What is the coordinate vector of the matrix relative to ? Answer: Let the basis vectors be . We need to find scalars such that . Combining the matrices on the right side gives . By equating the corresponding entries with matrix A, we find: - Top-left (1,1) entry: - Bottom-right (2,2) entry: - Top-right (1,2) entry: - Bottom-left (2,1) entry: The coordinate vector is formed by these scalars in the order they correspond to the basis vectors in . Thus, .
- Let be a basis for . Let and . What is the coordinate vector ? Answer: There are two methods. Method 1: First compute . Then find its coordinates by solving . This gives the system and . From the second equation, . Substituting into the first gives , so and . Thus, . Method 2: Use the linearity of coordinate mappings. . For , we solve , which gives . So . For , we solve , which gives . So . Then .
- Let be a basis for , where . The vector is unknown. If the vector has the coordinate vector , what is the vector ? Answer: The definition of the coordinate vector states that . We are given and , and we need to solve for . Substitute the known vectors into the equation: Now, rearrange the equation to isolate : .