BADLY WORDED PROBLEMS IN HOMEWORK #7, MATH 54 FALL 2012
JASON FERGUSON
JMF@[Link]
Some questions in Homework #7 on sections 4.1-4.3 were written in ways that made the questions ungrammatical
or make no sense at all.
I have outlined all of the examples I could find below:
More Serious Mistakes
1. Ex. 4.1.24c: True/False: A vector space is also a subspace.
Explanation. I accepted the following two answers as correct:
Interpreting the statement as “Every vector space is a subspace of some vector space.” True. Every vector space
is a subspace of itself.
Interpreting the statement precisely as written: The problem really should say which vector space it should be a
subspace of. It doesn’t make sense to just say “is a subspace.”
2. Ex. 4.1.24e: True/False: A subset H of a vector space V is a subspace of V if the following conditions are satisfied:
(i) the zero vector of V is in H, (ii) u, v, and u + v are in H, and (iii) c is a scalar and cu is in H.
Explanation. I accepted the following two answers as correct:
Interpreting the statement precisely as written: The statement never said what u and v were supposed to be, so
the problem statement doesn’t make sense . The usual statement of (ii) is: “For each u and v in H, the sum u + v
is in H.” The usual statement of (iii) is: “For each u in H and each scalar c, the vector cu is in H.
Interpreting the statement as “The definition of a subspace H of a vector space V is a subset of V for which: (i) the
zero vector of V is in H, (ii) u, v, and u + v are in H, and (iii) c is a scalar and cu is in H.” False , because the
statements “u, v, and u + v are in H,” and “c is a scalar and cu is in H” don’t make any sense, since the statement
never says what u and v are.
3. Ex. 4.1.27: Fill in the missing axiom numbers in the following proof that 0u = 0 for every u in V .
0u = (0 + 0)u = 0u + 0u by Axiom
Add the negative of 0u to both sides:
0u + (−0u) = [0u + 0u] + (−0u)
0u + (−0u) = 0u + [0u + (−0u)] by Axiom
0 = 0u + 0 by Axiom
0 = 0u by Axiom
Explanation. There also needs to be a “by Axiom ” next to “Add the negative of 0u to both sides:”. This is because
you need Axiom 5 to conclude that the negative of 0u exists.
4. Ex. 4.2.25d: In Exercises 25 and 26, A denotes an m × n matrix. Mark each statement True or False. Justify each
answer.
25d. If the equation Ax = b is consistent, then Col A is Rm .
Explanation. I accepted each of the following three answers as correct:
Interpreting the statement as “If the equation Ax = b is consistent for every b, then Col A is Rm .” True. See
Item 7 under the “Col A” column in the chart “Contrast Between Nul A and Col A for an m × n Matrix A” on page
192.
Interpreting the statement as “If the equation Ax = b is consistent for some b, then Col A is Rm .” False. For
every matrix A, the equation Ax = b is consistent for some b, namely b = 0. However, it is not true that Col A is
Rm for every matrix A. This is true only for matrices with pivots in every row, so if A is a zero matrix, then Col A is
not Rm .
Interpreting the statement precisely as written: The problem doesn’t make sense because it never says what b is
supposed to be, and depending on what b is it could be either true or false.
1
Minor Nitpicks
5. Ex. 4.1.1b: Let V be the first quadrant in the xy-plane; that is, let
x
V = : x ≥ 0, y ≥ 0
y
b. Find a specific vector u in V and a specific scalar c such that cu is not in V . (This is enough to show that V is
not a vector space.)
Explanation. This only shows that V cannot be made into a vector space when the scalar multiplication is the usual
one. There may be (and in fact there is) a really strange scalar multiplication on V that makes it into a vector
space.
6. Ex. 4.1.17: In Exercises 15-18, let W be the set of all vectors of the form shown, where a, b, and c represent
arbitrary real numbers. In each case, either find a set S of vectors that spans W or give an example to show that W
is not
a vector
space.
2a − b
3b − c
3c − a
3b
Explanation. Again, what the problem probably means is “or give an example to show that W is not a vector space
under the usual vector addition and scalar multiplication.” But this isn’t relevant for this problem, since for this
problem, W = Span{(2, 0, −1, 0), (−1, 3, 0, 3), (0, −1, 3, 0)}.
7. Exs. 4.2.7, 9, 11, 13: In Exercises 7-14, either use an appropriate theorem to show that the given set, W , is a
vectorspace,
or find a specific example to the contrary.
a
7. b : a + b + c = 2
c
p
q
9. : p − 3q = 4s, 2p = s = 5r
r
s
s − 2t
3 + 3s
11. : s, t real
3s + t
2s
c − 6d
13. d : c, d real
c
Explanation. Once again, what the problem probably means is “or find a specific example to show that W is not
a vector space under the usual vector addition and scalar multiplication.” This isn’t relevant for 9 and 13 because
both are vector spaces (under the usual vector addition and scalar multiplication). However, neither 7 nor 11 are
vector spaces under the usual vector addition and scalar multiplication, but both are vector spaces under nonstandard
addition and scalar multiplications. For example, a nonstandard addition and scalar multiplication that make the set
in 7 a vector space are:
a1 a2 a1 + a2 a ka
b1 ⊕ b2 = b1 + b2 k b = kb .
c1 c2 c1 + c2 − 2 c kc + 2(1 − k)
Under this addition and scalar multiplication, the sum of two vectors in V is in V , and any scalar multiple of a vector
in V is in V , and all of the other properties of being a vector space hold. Details omitted.
8. Ex. 4.2.25e: True/False: The kernel of a linear transformation is a vector space.
Explanation. Again, to be completely precise the problem really should say what the addition and scalar multiplication
are supposed to be. But the kernel of a linear transformation is always a subspace of the domain, so is always a vector
space (under the same addition and scalar multiplication used in the domain).
