Linear Algebra:

Simultaneous Linear Equations

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1. System of Linear Equations

Consider a system of m simultaneous linear equations in n unknowns:
a11x1 + a12x2 + ::: + a1nxn = c1;
a21x1 + a22x2 + ::: + a2nxn = c2;
... (*)
am1x1 + am2x2 + ::: + amnxn = cm;
– In matrix-vector notation, we can write this system as

Ax = c; where
0 1 0 1 0 1
a11 a12 a1n x1 c1
B a21 a22 a2n C B x2 C B c2 C
Am n =B
@ ... ... C B C
. . . ... A ; xn 1 = @ ... A ; cm 1 =B C
@ ... A :
am1 am2 amn xn cm

The system of equations (*) is called homogeneous if c = 0; and non-homogeneous

if c 6= 0.
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In analyzing a system of linear equations (*), the following questions naturally arise:
(i) Existence: Does there exist a solution to (*)?
(ii) Uniqueness: If there exists a solution to (*), is it unique?
(iii) Computation: If there exists a solution to (*), how can we nd such a solution?
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2. Existence of Solutions
If the system of equations (*) is homogeneous, there is always a trivial solution,
namely x = 0:

#1. Give an example to illustrate that if the system of equations is non-homogeneous,

then, in general, a solution may not exist.

In general, given the system of equations (*), we would like to know, given A and c;
whether there is a solution to (*).

Consider the system Ax = c.

– The m (n + 1) matrix
0 1
a11 a12 a1n c1
B a21 a22 a2n c2 C
Ac = B
@ ... ... . . . ... ... C
A
am1 am2 amn cm
is known as the augmented matrix.
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– Note that the augmented matrix Ac can be interpreted as an ordered set of n + 1

column vectors A1; A2; :::; An; c :

Theorem 1:
Let A be an m n matrix and c be a vector in <m: Then the system of equations
Ax = c has a solution if and only if
rank (A) = rank (Ac) :
– Proof: To be discussed in class.
– Hints:
1. Keep in mind that the augmented matrix Ac can be interpreted as an ordered
set of n + 1 column vectors A1; A2; :::; An; c .
2. Recognize that Ax = c has a solution implies that c can be expressed as a linear
combination of the column vectors of A; A1; A2; :::; An :
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3. Uniqueness of Solutions
Theorem 2:
Let A be an m n matrix and c be a vector in <m: Then the system of equations
Ax = c has a unique solution if and only if
rank (A) = rank (Ac) = n:
– Proof: To be discussed in class.
– Hints:
1. Step1: To show that if there exists a unique solution, then rank (A) = rank (Ac) =
n:
- Given that there exists a unique solution, call it x (that is, Ax = c): Then, by
Theorem 1, rank (A) = rank (Ac) :
- It remains to show that rank (A) = n:
- If rank (A) 6= n; then it must be that rank (A) < n:
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) A1; A2; :::; An is a set of linearly dependent vectors.

) There exists a vector = ( 1; 2 ; ::: n ) ; 6= 0; such that A = 0:
- Now try to nd out a contradiction to the fact that there exists a unique solution.

2. Step 2: To show that if rank (A) = rank (Ac) = n; then there exists a unique
solution.
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4. Calculation of Solutions
Consider the case of n linear equations in n unknowns. Let A be an n n matrix,
and c be a vector in <n: Consider the system of equations given by
Ax = c:
#2. Prove that if rank (A) = n; then rank (Ac) = n:
– In view of this and Theorem 2, we have to check only if rank (A) = n to see whether
a unique solution exists.
rank (A) = n; ) A is non-singular, ) A is invertible,
) Premultiplying Ax = c by A 1
we get
A 1Ax = A 1c; ) Ix = A 1c; ) x = A 1c:
So x = A 1c is the solution.
– In terms of calculating this solution, it remains to learn how to calculate A 1; the
inverse of a non-singular matrix.
- This leads us naturally into the study of determinants.
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5. Determinants
Let A be an n n matrix. We can associate with A a number, denoted by jAj ; called
the determinant of A:
The determinant of the n n matrix is de ned recursively as follows:
(1) For a 1 1 matrix, which is a number, we de ne the determinant to be the number
itself.
(2) For any m m matrix A (m 2); the cofactor Aij of the element aij is ( 1)i+j times
the determinant of the submatrix obtained from A by deleting row i and column j:
The determinant of the m m matrix is then given by
m
X
jAj = a1j A1j :
j=1

– Thus using (2) and knowing (1), the determinant of a 2 2 matrix is

a11a22 a12a21:
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– This information can then be used in (2) again to obtain the determinant of a 3 3
matrix:
a11A11 + a12A12 + a13A13
= a11 (a22a33 a32a23) a12 (a21a33 a31a23) + a13 (a21a32 a31a22) :
– This procedure can be continued to obtain the determinant of any n n matrix.
– It is implicit in the de nition of jAj that the expansion is done by the rst row. How-
ever, it can be shown that for every i = 1; 2; :::; n;
n
X
jAj = aij Aij
j=1

so that expansion by any row will give the same result.

– Expansion by any column will also give the same result, that is, for every j =
1; 2; :::; n;
n
X
jAj = aij Aij :
i=1
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Properties of Determinants:

(i) jAj = AT :

(ii) The multiplication of any one row by a scalar k will change the determinant k -fold.

(iii) The interchange of any two rows will alter the sign, but not the numerical value, of
the determinant.

(iv) If one row is a multiple of another row, the determinant is zero.

(v) The addition of a multiple of any row to another row will leave the determinant
unaltered.

(vi) The expansion of a determinant by “alien” cofactors yields a value of zero. That is,
n
X
aij Akj = 0; if i 6= k:
j=1

[Here the expansion is by the i-th row, using cofactors of the k -th row].
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(vii) jABj = jAj jBj :

– Properties (ii) – (v) hold if the word “row” is replaced uniformly by “column” in each
statement.

– The proofs will be discussed in class.

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6. Matrix Inversion
Theorem 3:
Let A be an n n matrix. Then A is invertible if and only if jAj 6= 0: Furthermore, in
case A is invertible, A 1 = jAj 1 :
– Proof: To be discussed in class.
– Hints:
1. Step1: To show that if A is invertible then jAj =
6 0: Use Property (vii).
2. Step 2: To show that if jAj =
6 0 then A is invertible.
- It is equivalent to show that A is nonsingular.
- Suppose not. Then the column vectors of A; A1; A2; :::; An ; are linearly de-
pendent.
) One column vector can be expressed as a linear combination of the other col-
umn vectors.
- Now use Property (v) to show that a contradiction arises.
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It follows that for an n n matrix A; the following statements are equivalent:

– A is invertible;
– A is non-singular;
– jAj =
6 0;
– rank (A) = n;
– Column vectors of A are linearly independent.

Cofactor Matrix: For an n n matrix A; we de ne the cofactor matrix of A to be the

n n matrix given by
0 1
A11 A12 A1n
B A21 A22 A2n C
B
C = @ .. . . C:
. .. . . . .. A
An1 An2 Ann
Adjoint Matrix: The transpose of C is called the adjoint of A; and denoted by adj A;
that is, adj A = C T :
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By the rules of matrix multiplication,

0P n Pn Pn 1
a A a A a1j Anj
B j=1 1j 1j j=1 1j 2j C
B n j=1 C
BP Pn Pn C
B a2j A1j a2j A2j a2j Anj C
AC = B
T
B j=1 . j=1 j=1
C
C
B . ... ... ... C
B n . C
@P Pn Pn A
anj A1j anj A2j anj Anj
j=1 j=1 j=1

0 1
jAj 0 0
B 0 jAj 0 C
= B
@ ... ... . . . ... C
A
0 0 jAj

= jAj I:
– Note that this calculation is valid for any n n matrix, invertible or otherwise.
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Inverse of a Matrix:

– If A is invertible, there is A 1
such that AA 1
= A 1A = I:

– Consider the relation AC T = jAj I: Premultiplying by A 1

we get
C T = jAj A 1:
– Since A is invertible, we have jAj =
6 0: Then we can divide by jAj and get
1 CT adj A
A = = :
jAj jAj

- This gives a formula for computing the inverse of an invertible matrix A in terms
of the determinant and cofactors of A.
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7. Cramer's Rule
Recall that we wanted to calculate the unique solution of a system of n equations in
n unknowns given by
Ax = c
where A is an n n matrix and c is a vector in <n:
– We found that the unique solution is given by
x = A 1c:
– Using the formula for A 1
derived above we conclude that
adj A
x = A 1c = c:
jAj
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Let us evaluate xi using the above relationship:

adj A
xi = eix = ei c
jAj
(A1i A2i ... Ani) c
=
jAj
(c1A1i + c2A2i + ::: + cnAni)
=
jAj
a11 a1; i 1 c1 a1; i+1 a1n
1 a21 a2; i 1 c2 a2; i+1 a2n
= . . . ... :
jAj ... . . . ... ... ...
an1 an; i 1 cn an; i+1 ann
This gives us an easy way to compute the solution of xi:
– Replace the i-th column of A by the vector c and nd the determinant of this matrix.
– Dividing this number by the determinant of A yields the solution of xi:
– This rule is known as Cramer's Rule.
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References
Must read the following sections from the textbook:
Section 9.1 (pages 188 – 194) [You can skip Theorems 9.1 and 9.2.],
Section 9.2 (pages 194 – 197).
This material is based on
1. Hadley, G., Linear Algebra, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1964 (chapters 3, 5),
2. Hohn, Franz E., Elementary Matrix Algebra, New Delhi: Amerind, 1971 (chapters
2, 6, 7),
3. Gale, David, The Theory of Linear Economic Models, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960
(chapter 2).
Some of this material is also covered in
4. Dorfman, Robert, Paul A. Samuelson and Robert M. Solow, Linear Programming
and Economic Analysis, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958 (Appendix B).