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Questions tagged [linear-algebra]

For questions on linear algebra, including vector spaces, linear transformations, systems of linear equations, spanning sets, bases, dimensions and vector subspaces.

Linear algebra is concerned with vector spaces and linear transformations between them:

$$(x_1, \dots, x_n)\to a_1x_n+\dots+a_nx_n$$

Concepts include systems of linear equations, bases, dimensions, subspaces, matrices, determinants, kernels, null spaces, column spaces, traces, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, diagonalization and Jordan normal forms.

This is a general tag, most of the subjects included have secondary tags, e.g.

130434 questions
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What's an intuitive way to think about the determinant?

In my linear algebra class, we just talked about determinants. So far I’ve been understanding the material okay, but now I’m very confused. I get that when the determinant is zero, the matrix doesn’t have an inverse. I can find the determinant of a…
Jamie Banks
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4 answers

What is the intuitive relationship between SVD and PCA?

Singular value decomposition (SVD) and principal component analysis (PCA) are two eigenvalue methods used to reduce a high-dimensional data set into fewer dimensions while retaining important information. Online articles say that these methods are…
wickedchicken
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36 answers

If $AB = I$ then $BA = I$

If $A$ and $B$ are square matrices such that $AB = I$, where $I$ is the identity matrix, show that $BA = I$. I do not understand anything more than the following. Elementary row operations. Linear dependence. Row reduced forms and their…
Dilawar
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What is the importance of eigenvalues/eigenvectors?

What is the importance of eigenvalues/eigenvectors?
Ryan
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0 answers

Limit of sequence of growing matrices

Let $$ H=\left(\begin{array}{cccc} 0 & 1/2 & 0 & 1/2 \\ 1/2 & 0 & 1/2 & 0 \\ 1/2 & 0 & 0 & 1/2\\ 0 & 1/2 & 1/2 & 0 \end{array}\right), $$ $K_1=\left(\begin{array}{c}1 \\ 0\end{array}\right)$ and consider the sequence of matrices defined by $$ K_L =…
Eckhard
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5 answers

Norms Induced by Inner Products and the Parallelogram Law

Let $ V $ be a normed vector space (over $\mathbb{R}$, say, for simplicity) with norm $ \lVert\cdot\rVert$. It's not hard to show that if $\lVert \cdot \rVert = \sqrt{\langle \cdot, \cdot \rangle}$ for some (real) inner product $\langle \cdot, \cdot…
Hans Parshall
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3 answers

How does one prove the determinant inequality $\det\left(6(A^3+B^3+C^3)+I_{n}\right)\ge 5^n\det(A^2+B^2+C^2)$?

Reposted on MathOverflow Let $\,A,B,C\in M_{n}(\mathbb C)\,$ be Hermitian and positive definite matrices such that $A+B+C=I_{n}$, where $I_{n}$ is the identity matrix. Show that $$\det\left(6(A^3+B^3+C^3)+I_{n}\right)\ge 5^n \det…
math110
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Eigenvectors of real symmetric matrices are orthogonal

Can someone point me to a paper, or show here, why symmetric matrices have orthogonal eigenvectors? In particular, I'd like to see proof that for a symmetric matrix $A$ there exists decomposition $A = Q\Lambda Q^{-1} = Q\Lambda Q^{T}$ where…
Phonon
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5 answers

What is the difference between linear and affine function?

I am a bit confused. What is the difference between a linear and affine function? Any suggestions will be appreciated.
user34790
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7 answers

Why do we care about dual spaces?

When I first took linear algebra, we never learned about dual spaces. Today in lecture we discussed them and I understand what they are, but I don't really understand why we want to study them within linear algebra. I was wondering if anyone knew a…
WWright
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253
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8 answers

Proof that the trace of a matrix is the sum of its eigenvalues

I have looked extensively for a proof on the internet but all of them were too obscure. I would appreciate if someone could lay out a simple proof for this important result. Thank you.
JohnK
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241
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13 answers

Inverse of the sum of matrices

I have two square matrices: $A$ and $B$. $A^{-1}$ is known and I want to calculate $(A+B)^{-1}$. Are there theorems that help with calculating the inverse of the sum of matrices? In general case $B^{-1}$ is not known, but if it is necessary then it…
Tomek Tarczynski
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6 answers

Why does this matrix give the derivative of a function?

I happened to stumble upon the following matrix: $$ A = \begin{bmatrix} a & 1 \\ 0 & a \end{bmatrix} $$ And after trying a bunch of different examples, I noticed the following remarkable pattern. If $P$ is a polynomial,…
ASKASK
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What is the geometric interpretation of the transpose?

I can follow the definition of the transpose algebraically, i.e. as a reflection of a matrix across its diagonal, or in terms of dual spaces, but I lack any sort of geometric understanding of the transpose, or even symmetric matrices. For example,…
Zed
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8 answers

Intuitively, what is the difference between Eigendecomposition and Singular Value Decomposition?

I'm trying to intuitively understand the difference between SVD and eigendecomposition. From my understanding, eigendecomposition seeks to describe a linear transformation as a sequence of three basic operations ($P^{-1}DP$) on a vector: Rotation…
user541686
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