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Example Questions
Example Question #21 : The Inverse
and
are both two-by-two matrices.
has an inverse.
True or false: Both and
have inverses.
False
True
True
A matrix is nonsingular - that is, it has an inverse - if and only if its determinant is nonzero. Also, the determinant of the product of two matrices is equal to the product of their individual determinants. Combining these ideas:
If either or
, then it must hold that
.
Equivalently, if either or
has no inverse, then
has no inverse. Contrapositively, if
has an inverse, it must hold that each of
and
has an inverse.
Example Question #22 : The Inverse
and
are both nonsingular two-by-two matrices.
True or false: must also be nonsingular.
False
True
False
We can prove that the sum of two nonsingular matrices need not be nonsingular by counterexample.
Let ,
.
A matrix is nonsingular - that is, with an inverse - if and only if its determinant is nonzero. The determinant of a two-by-two matrix is equal to the product of its upper left to lower right entries minus that of its upper right to lower left entries, so:
Both and
are nonsingular.
Now add the matrices by adding them term by term.
,
the zero matrix, whose determinant is 0 and which is therefore not nonsingular.
Example Question #241 : Operations And Properties
is a singular four-by-four matrix. True or false:
must also be a singular matrix.
True
False
True
A matrix is singular - that is, it has no inverse - if and only if its determinant is equal to 0. is singular, so
.
The determinant of the scalar product of and an
matrix
is
;
setting ,
,
:
Therefore, , having determinant 0, is also singular.
Example Question #21 : The Inverse
is a nonsingular matrix.
True or false: the inverse of the matrix is
.
True
False
True
By definition,
and
.
Multiply:
Similarly,
Therefore, is the inverse of
.
Example Question #22 : The Inverse
True or False: If ,
are square and invertible matrices then
is also invertible.
True
False
True
To prove is invertible, we need to find another square matrix
such that
.
Since exist, take
, then we have
,
and
.
Hence is invertible.
Example Question #23 : The Inverse
Suppose that is an invertible matrix. Simplify
.
To simplify
we used the identities:
so we get
Example Question #21 : The Inverse
Suppose that are all invertible. What is the inverse of
?
The inverse of is
since we can multiply it by
to get:
Therefore is the inverse of
Example Question #248 : Operations And Properties
Find .
does not have an inverse.
The inverse of a two-by-two matrix
is
Substituting the entries in the matrix for the variables:
Example Question #22 : The Inverse
Find .
To find the inverse of a matrix , set up an augmented matrix
, as shown below:
Perform row operations on this matrix until it is in reduced row-echelon form.
The following operations are arguably the easiest:
The augmented matrix is in reduced row-echelon form . The inverse is therefore
.
Example Question #322 : Linear Algebra
.
Calculate .
is undefined.
is undefined.
The matrix is not a square matrix - it has two rows and three columns - so it does not have an inverse.
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