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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : The Identity Matrix And Diagonal Matrices
Which of the following matrices is a scalar multiple of the identity matrix?
, ,
The x identity matrix is
For this problem we see that
And so
is a scalar multiple of the identity matrix.
Example Question #1 : The Identity Matrix And Diagonal Matrices
Which of the following is true concerning diagonal matrices?
The determinant of any diagonal matrix is .
The product of two diagonal matrices (in either order) is always another diagonal matrix.
The trace of any diagonal matrix is equal to its determinant.
The zero matrix (of any size) is not a diagonal matrix.
All of the other answers are false.
The product of two diagonal matrices (in either order) is always another diagonal matrix.
You can verify this directly by proving it, or by multiplying a few examples on your calculator.
Example Question #1 : The Identity Matrix And Diagonal Matrices
Which of the following is true concerning the identity matrix ?
All of the other answers are true.
is the trace operation. It means to add up the entries along the main diagonal of the matrix. Since has ones along its main diagonal, the trace of is .
Example Question #2 : The Identity Matrix And Diagonal Matrices
If
Find .
None of the other answers
Since is a diagonal matrix, we can find it's powers more easily by raising the numbers inside it to the power in question.
Example Question #1 : Operations And Properties
True or false, the set of all diagonal matrices forms a subspace of the vector space of all matrices.
False
True
True
To see why it's true, we have to check the two axioms for a subspace.
1. Closure under vector addition: is the sum of two diagonal matrices another diagonal matrix? Yes it is, only the diagonal entries are going to change, if at all. Nonetheless, it's still a diagonal matrix since all the other entries in the matrix are .
2. Closure under scalar multiplication: is a scalar times a diagonal matrix another diagonal matrix? Yes it is. If you multiply any number to a diagonal matrix, only the diagonal entries will change. All the other entries will still be .
Example Question #2 : Operations And Properties
True or false, if any of the main diagonal entries of a diagonal matrix is , then that matrix is not invertible.
True
False
True
Probably the simplest way to see this is true is to take the determinant of the diagonal matrix. We can take the determinant of a diagonal matrix by simply multiplying all of the entries along its main diagonal. Since one of these entries is , then the determinant is , and hence the matrix is not invertible.
Example Question #3 : Operations And Properties
True or False, the identity matrix has distinct (different) eigenvalues.
False
True
False
We can find the eigenvalues of the identity matrix by finding all values of such that .
Hence we have
So is the only eigenvalue, regardless of the size of the identity matrix.
Example Question #3 : The Identity Matrix And Diagonal Matrices
What is the name for a matrix obtained by performing a single elementary row operation on the identity matrix?
A transition matrix
None of the other answers
An elementary matrix
An elementary row matrix
An inverse matrix
An elementary matrix
This is the correct term. Elementary matrices themselves can be used in place of elementary row operations when row reducing other matrices when convenient.
Example Question #4 : Operations And Properties
By definition, a square matrix that is similar to a diagonal matrix is
None of the given answers
diagonalizable
symmetric
the identity matrix
idempotent
diagonalizable
Another way to state this definition is that a square matrix is said to diagonalizable if and only if there exists some invertible matrix and diagonal matrix such that .
Example Question #5 : Operations And Properties
The identity matrix
has nullity .
has distinct eigenvalues, regardless of size.
is not diagonalizable.
has rank .
is idempotent.
is idempotent.
An idempotent matrix is one such that . This is satisfied by the identity matrix since the identity matrix times itself is once again the identity matrix.
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