Linear Algebra : Linear Algebra

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Linear Algebra

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Example Questions

Example Question #831 : Linear Algebra

Let  and  be vectors defined by

.

Find the dot product .

Possible Answers:

The dimensions do not match and the dot product does not exist.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Vectors  and  are both of length 4. The dimensions match and the dot product exists.

Example Question #16 : Vector Vector Product

Let  and  be vectors defined by 

.

Find the cross product .

Possible Answers:

The cross product does not exist.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We can find the cross product by calculating the determinant of the following matrix

Example Question #17 : Vector Vector Product

Let  and  be vectors defined by

.

Find the cross product .

Possible Answers:

The cross product does not exist.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We find the cross product by finding the determinant of the following matrix

Example Question #11 : Vector Vector Product

The expression  yields a polynomial of what degree?

Possible Answers:

None of the other choices gives a correct response.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The dot product  is the sum of the products of entries in corresponding positions, so

The degree of a term of a polynomial is the sum of the exponents of its variables. Each term in this polynomial has exponent sum 5, so each term has degree 5. The degree of the polynomial is the greatest of the degrees, so the polynomial has degree 5.

Example Question #21 : Vector Vector Product

, where  is which vector?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Let 

The dot product  is the sum of the products of entries in corresponding positions, so

Therefore,  is the vector of coefficients of the powers of  of , in ascending order of exponent.

By the Binomial Theorem, 

.

Therefore,  has as its entries the binomial coefficients for 6, which are:

It follows that .

Example Question #22 : Vector Vector Product

The expression  yields a polynomial of what degree?

Possible Answers:

None of the other choices gives a correct response.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The dot product  is the sum of the products of entries in corresponding positions, so

The degree of a term of a polynomial is the sum of the exponents of its variables; the individual terms have degrees 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, in that order. the degree of the polynomial is the highest of these, which is 10.

Example Question #23 : Vector Vector Product

.

 is equal to the fifth-degree Maclaurin series for  for:

Possible Answers:

None of the other choices gives the correct response.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The th-degree Maclaurin series for a function  is the polynomial

If ,

then

.

Therefore, we want  to be the vector of Maclaurin coefficients by ascending order of degree.

The fifth-degree Maclaurin series for  is

The Maclaurin series for  can be derived from this by replacing  with :

Therefore, 

Example Question #24 : Vector Vector Product

Which of the following is undefined,  or ?

Possible Answers:

Neither

Both 

Correct answer:

Explanation:

, the dot product of the vectors,  is a defined quantity if and only if both vectors are elements of the same vector space. Each has four entries, so both are in . Consequently,  is defined.

, the cross product of the vectors, is a defined vector if and only if both vectors are elements in . As previously mentioned, they are in , so  is undefined.

Example Question #25 : Vector Vector Product

 

Which of the following is undefined,  or ?

Possible Answers:

Neither

Both 

Correct answer:

Both 

Explanation:

, the dot product of the vectors,  is a defined quantity if and only if both vectors are elements of the same vector space.  has three entries, so  has two entries, so . The two are in different vector spaces, so  is undefined.

, the cross product of the vectors, is a defined vector if and only if both vectors are elements in . As previously mentioned, , so  is undefined.

Example Question #21 : Vector Vector Product

 

Evaluate 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

One way to determine the cross-product of two vectors is to set up a matrix with the first row , where these are the unit vectors , respectively, and with the entries of the vectors as the other two rows:

We can evaluate this as we would evaluate a determinant of a matrix with real entries. Take the products of the upper-left-to-lower-right diagonals, and subtract the products of the lower-left-to-upper-right diagonals:

Cross product

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