MATH 312 - Spring 2012

Midterm Exam II Practice Problems

Although most of the problems in Lay are on the easy side, hence not necessarily all that useful,
the supplemental exercises found at the end of each chapter are pretty good. In particular, there
is always a long list of true/false questions, which should be very helpful with regard to conceptual
questions. For the record, the exam will cover sections 2.2 to 4.7, with, potentially, a question or
two involving signals and filters. That is, the exam covers material up to and including Wednesdays
lecture. Consequently, questions 1(iii), 7, and 8(iv) below, although excellent, go beyond the scope
of what I feel comfortable asking on the exam.
1. True/False:
(i) There is a linear transformation L : R5 R4 with dim(Ker(L)) = 3 and dim(Im(L)) = 1.
(ii) If A is m n, rank(A) = r, and n r m, the equation Ax = b has exactly one solution for
each b Rm .
(iii) The signals {sin( 4 k) | k Z} and {cos( 4 k) | k Z} are linearly independent.
(iv) A signal is finite if all but finitely many of its entries are zero. The set of all finite signals forms
a subspace of Sig.
(v) If V = span(S), then every v V can be written as a unique linear combination of elements of
S.
(vi) If V and W are real vector spaces, V is a subspace of W , and dim(W ) = n, then dim(V ) n.
2. Find a maximal linearly independent subset of {(1, 1, 2), (0, 0, 0), (1, 3, 1), (3, 7, 7), (1, 5, 3)}.
Does it form a basis for R3 ?
3. Find bases for Col(A), N ul(A), Row(A), and LN ul(A), where

1 1 1
A= 2 3 1
1 1 3
4. Find the shadow cast on the xz-plane by the tetrahedron with vertices (1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (1, 2, 0),
and (0, 2, 1) if the light source is positioned at (0, 5, 0).

5. (i) Which of the following sets form a basis for R3 ?

B
C
D

= {(0, 1, 2), (2, 4, 1), (1, 0, 1)}

= {(1, 1, 2), (0, 1, 1), (0, 0, 1)}
= {(3, 0, 1), (1, 2, 0), (0, 6, 1)}

(ii) If two or more are indeed bases, compute the change of basis matrix between each pair.
6. (i) Find real numbers a and b so that the matrix

1 0
1 2
A=
0 4
2 1

1
a
1
0

1
1

5
b

is singular.
(ii) Find a and b that make A invertible.
7. Show that for any distinct (i.e. unequal) nonzero real numbers a, b, and c, the signals {ak },
{bk }, and {ck } are linearly independent.
8. First three parts are fair game on the exam.
(i) Give a linear filter that kills all signals that are periodic with period 3 (e.g. {. . . 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1 . . . }).
(ii) Give a linear filter that kills all constant signals (e.g.{. . . c, c, c, c . . . }).
(iii) Give a linear filter that kills the signal {rk }, r a nonzero real number.
(iv) Find a basis for the space of signals killed by the filter zk = yk 2yk1 + yk2 . Hint: look for
solutions of the form {rk }.
9. (i) Compute the change of basis matrix that translates standard coordinates into B-coordinates,
where B = {(1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 0), (1, 0, 1)}.
(ii) How does this change of basis transformation affect volumes? For example, what is the volume
of the image of the unit cube in the first octant?
10. Let A be m n, rank(A) = r. Under what conditions on m, n, and r is Ax = b guaranteed to
have either 0 or 1 solutions? 0 or infinitely many? 1 or infinitely many?
11. Use Cramers Rule to solve the system

0 2 1
1 0 0

0 1 1
1 1 0

1
x =

0
0

1
1

1
1

12. Consider the map m : P1 (R) P2 (R) that takes any polynomial p(x) to

d
2
dx (x

p(x)).

(i) Give the matrix for m with respect to the obvious coordinates on P2 (R) and P3 (R), i.e. with
respect to bases {1, x} and {1, x, x2 }.
(ii) Is m one-to-one? Onto?
(iii) What is the matrix for m with respect to the bases {1, x 1} and {1, x 1, x2 1}?
13. Find a real number c so that the volume of the parallelepiped spanned by (1, 1, 1), (1, 0, 1),
and (c, 1, c) is 4.
14. Is the function f : R2 R2 given by f (x, y) = (x + x2 y, y 2 x) invertible near the point
(1, 1)? Near (0, 0)?
15. For what values of r, if any, does the set of rank r matrices form a subspace of Mn , the space of
all n n matrices? For what values of r, if any, does the set of matrices of rank less than or equal
to r form a subspace of Mn ?
16. Let V = {p(x) P2 (R) | p(1) = 0}. Is V a subspace of P2 (R)? If so, give a basis for V . How
does its dimension compare to the dimension of the larger space?