Given B = ((1,-1,1),(1,1,3)) determine the general solution of the homogeneous system Bx=0. This describes the intersection of two objects (e.g. a line or a plane). Determine and find the Cartesian equation of this object.

Rhett Guerrero

Rhett Guerrero

Answered question

2022-11-15

Given B =
( 1 1 1 1 1 3 )
determine the general solution of the homogeneous system Bx=0. This describes the intersection of two objects (e.g. a line or a plane). Determine and find the Cartesian equation of this object.
I have solved the homogeneous equation being x = t ( 2 , 1 , 1 ) but how do I determine what two objects this intersection represents along with their Cartesian equation?

Answer & Explanation

h2a2l1i2morz

h2a2l1i2morz

Beginner2022-11-16Added 19 answers

Note that the first two columns are linearly independent, this means rank (dimension of the range space) is at least 2. But range is R 2 . Thus the range is entire R 2 . By the rank-nullity theorem, the nullity is 3 2 = 1. This means the solution space for B x = 0 is 1 dimensional. Thus it must be a line passing through the origin.
Note: we didn't have to really solve the system to determine the geometry of the solution space.
From your answer it is clear that any solution is parallel to the vector [ 2 1 1 ] . Hence it is line whose direction vector is this and passes through the origin.

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