Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-and-computational-biology-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-1/3/d/solution

The eigenvector has eigenvalue . On its orthogonal complement, write vectors as . The eigenvalue equation becomes
Hence the ordered eigenvalues of the covariance matrix are , , and . The first two principal components explain
of the total variance. The denominator is the sum of all eigenvalues, which equals the trace.

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