Linear Algebra February 25, 2025

1. Algebra of Matrices

1.1. Addition and multiplication by scalars

Let A ∈ Rm×n . We can write

A = (aij )

where i ∈ {1, 2, ..., m} and j ∈ {1, 2, ..., n}. If s ∈ R, we define

sA = (saij )
   
3 2 6 4
for all i, j. That is, if A = −1 0 then 2A = −2 0.
−2 4 −4 8
Now suppose that we have two matrices of the same size, say A, B ∈ Rm×n . We write,
again,
A = (aij ) and B = (bij ).

The we define
A + B = (aij + bij ).

2 −1 −3 −2
   

Example 1.1. Let A =  3 4  and B =  4 5 . Then

−2 0 0 −2

−1 −3
 

A+B = 7 9 .
−2 −2

Proposition 1.2. Suppose that A, B, C ∈ Rm×n and that a, b ∈ R. Then we have

1. A + B = B + A,

2. (A + B) + C = A + (B + C)

3. A + 0 = 0 + A = A

4. A + (−A) = (−A) + A = 0

5. a(A + B) = aA + aB

6. (a + b)A = aA + bA

7. a(bA) = (ab)A

8. 1A = A

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Linear Algebra February 25, 2025

1.2. Matrix Multiplication

Suppose that B is a matrix that defines a linear transformation T from Rn to Rm and
A is a matrix that defines a linear transformation S from Rm to Rp . We want to find
the standard matrix form of the linear tranformation ST = S ◦ T . For this we have
to claculate the values ABx for x ∈ Rn . If B = b1 b2 · · · bn then we know that
 

Bx = x1 b1 + x2 b2 + · · · + xn bn . Therefore we look at A(x1 b1 + x2 b2 + · · · + xn bn ) =

x1 Ab1 + x2 Ab2 + · · · + xn Abn . Therefore the matrix of ST must have columns Ab1 ,
Ab2 ,....,Abn . This suggest that one should define
 
AB = Ab1 Ab2 · · · Abn .

Remark 1.3. ST si defined only when the codomain of S is equal to the domain of S.
Therefore, if A ∈ Rp×m and B ∈ Rk×n then AB is defined only if k = m. In this case we
say that A and B are compatible.
A simple obesrvation shows the following
Fact 1.4. If rowi (X) denotes the ith row of the matrix X, we have

rowi (AB) = rowi (A)B.

   
2 4 −1 1 3
Example 1.5. Let A = and B = . Calculate AB.
−1 1 2 4 6
Example 1.6. If A is a 3 × 5 matrix and B is a 5 × 2 matrix, what are the sizes of AB
and BA, if they are defined?

1.3. Properties
Proposition 1.7. Suppose that A ∈ Rm×n and B, C are matrices such that the operations
below are defined. Suppose also r ∈ R. Then
1. A(BC) = (AB)C,

2. A(B + C) = AB + AC,

3. (B + C)A = AB + CA,

4. r(AB) = (rA)B = A(rB)

5. Im A = A = AIn where Ik ∈ Rk×k is the identity matrix of size k.

   
2 1 1 0
Remark 1.8. Let A = and B = . Then we have
5 −1 −1 2
   
1 2 2 1
AB = and BA = .
6 −2 8 −3
This shows that in general we have

AB ̸= BA.

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Linear Algebra February 25, 2025

If A is a square matrix of size n, then A2 = AA is defined. Then A3 can be defined

to be AA2 . Hence it makes sense to define

Ak = AAk−1

for every integer k ≥ 2.

Fact 1.9. Suppose that A is a square matrix of size n. Then any two positive powers of
A commute with each other, and we have

An Am = Am An = An+m

for every n, m ∈ N. We define A0 = In .

     
1 0 0 2 0 0
Remark 1.10. Let A = ,B= and C = . Then we have AB = AC =
0 0 0 4 0 1
 
0 0
. Therefore, if AB = 0, we cannot conclude that A or B must be the zero matrix.
0 0
Moreover, if AB = AC, we cannot conclude that B = C. That is, in general, there is no
cancellation in matrix multiplication.

1.4. The transpose of a matrix

Let rowi (A) denote the ith row of a matrix A and let colj (A) denote the jth column of
A.

Definition 1.11. Let A ∈ Rm×n be a matrix. The transpose of A, AT is the matrix in

Rn×m by the following: For each i we have coli(AT ) = rowi(A).
Therefore if A is a row matrix, then AT is a column matrix and if A is a column
matrix, then AT is a row matrix.  T
a1
T
a2 
  
T
Similarly, if A = a1 a2 · · · an , then A =  . .
 .. 
aTn

Proposition 1.12. Suppose that A and B are matrices such that the following operations
in appropriate places are defined, r ∈ R. Then

1. (AT )T = A,

2. (A + B)T = AT + B T ,

3. (rA)T = rAT ,

4. (AB)T = B T AT .

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Linear Algebra February 25, 2025

2. Matrix Inversion
Let A be a square matrix of size n × n. If B is a square matrix of the same size and
AB = BA = In
we say that A is invertible, B is the inverse of A and is denoted by A−1 .
 
a b
Theorem 2.1. Let A = . Then A is invertible iff ad − bc ̸= 0. In this case
c d
 
−1 1 d −b
A = .
ad − bc −c a
 
3 4
Example 2.2. Let A = . Find A−1 .
5 6
Theorem 2.3. If A is invertible, for every b ∈ Rn , the equation Ax = b has a unique
solution. The solution is given by
x = A−1 b.
Theorem 2.4. 1. If A is invertible, then
(A−1 )−1 = A.

2. If A and B are invertible and of the same size, then

(AB)−1 = B −1 A−1 .

3. If A is invertible so is AT and we have

(AT )−1 = (A−1 )T .

2.1. Elementary Matrices

An elementary matrix is one that is obtained by performing a single elementary row op-
eration on an identity matrix. The next example illustrates the three kinds of elementary
matrices.
Example 2.5.
     
1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0
E1 =  0 1 0, E2 = 1 0 0, E3 = 0 1 0.
−4 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 5
 
a b c
The, if A = d e f , then we have
g h i
 
a b c
E1 A =  d e f ,
g − 4a h − 4b i − 4c

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Linear Algebra February 25, 2025
 
d e f
E2 A = a b c ,
g h i
and  
a b c
E3 A =  d e f .
2g 5h 5i
Fact 2.6. If an elementary row operation is performed on an m×n matrix A, the resulting
matrix can be written as EA, where the m × m matrix E is created by performing the
same row operation on Im .
Fact 2.7. Each elementary matrix E is invertible. The inverse of E is the elementary
matrix of the same type that transforms E back into I.
Theorem 2.8. An n × n matrix A is invertible if and only if A is row equivalent to In ,
and in this case, any sequence of elementary row operations that reduces A to In also
transforms In into A−1 .
Suppose that A is a square matrix of size n. Suppose we want to know whether A
is invertible , and we want to find its inverse if it is invertible. Let E be the set of all
elementary matrices of size n.
We form the matrix
 
A In
where In is the identity matrix in Rn×n . When we apply some elementary row operation
corresponding to the elementary matrix X1 , we get
   
X1 A X1 In = X1 A X1 .
If we apply another elementary row operation corrseponding to X2 ∈ E afterwards, we
get
 
X2 X 1 A X 2 X 1 .
Conclusion 2.9. If we apply k successive elementary rtow operation to the matrix
   
A In , we get some matrix of the form U, V such that V is a product of k elementary
matrices from E and U = V A. In other words we alyas get some matrix of the form
 
UA U
where U is a product of elementary matrices.
We know that A is invertible iff it is row equivalent to In . Therefore there is a sequence
X1 , X2 , ..., Xp of elementary matrices such that
Xp Xp−1 · · · X2 X1 A = In .
 
If we apply these elementary row operations to the matrix A , In , we get
   
Xp · · · X2 X1 A Xp · · · X2 X1 = In Xp · · · X2 X1 .
This shows that
Xp · · · X2 X1 = A−1 .

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Linear Algebra February 25, 2025

2.2. Characterization of invertible matrices

Theorem 2.10. Let A be a square n × n matrix. Then the following statements are
equivalent. That is, for a given A, the statements are either all true or all false.
a. A is an invertible matrix.
b. A is row equivalent to the n × n identity matrix.
c. A has n pivot positions.
d. The equation Ax = 0 has only the trivial solution.
e. The columns of A form a linearly independent set.
f. The linear transformation x 7→ Ax is one-to-one.
g. The equation Ax = b has at least one solution for each b ∈ Rn .
h. The columns of A span Rn .
i. The linear transformation x 7→ Ax maps Rn onto Rn .
j. There is an n × n matrix C such that CA = I.
k. There is an n × n matrix D such that AD = I.
l. AT is an invertible matrix.

Fact 2.11. Let A and B be square matrices. If AB = I, then A and B are both invertible,
with B = A−1 and A = B 1 .

A linear transformation T : Rn → Rn is said to be invertible if there exists a func-

tion S : Rn → Rn such that

ST (x) = x for all x ∈ Rn (1)

T S(x) = x for all x ∈ Rn
(2)

Theorem 2.12. Let T : Rn → Rn be a linear transformation and let A be the standard

matrix for T . Then T is invertible if and only if A is an invertible matrix. In that
case, the linear transformation S given by S(x) = A−1 x is the unique function satisfying
equations (1) and (2).

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