Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/ia/paper-1/8b/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ia Paper 1 8B i Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An orthogonal matrix satisfies , so it preserves the Euclidean norm. For a nonzero real eigenvector ,Therefore . Geometrically, eigenvalue fixes every vector on the linear span of ; eigenvalue reverses every vector on that line. In either case the line is preserved as a set.
For , solving gives , , . For , the equations are and , hence . For , let and , so that . Then is equivalent to . The resulting eigenspaces and their bases areSolving all the equations shows that these lists contain the maximum possible numbers of independent eigenvectors with eigenvalue .
The columns of form an orthonormal basis, so is an orthogonal matrix. Also . Its fixed axis is the line through , and on the perpendicular plane it acts as a two-dimensional rotation. If denotes the rotation angle, its matrix trace is . Since , we obtain . To fix the orientation relative to , note that andThe component of perpendicular to has squared length , and this scalar triple product equals . Hence . ThusEquivalently, its unsigned angle is , or its positive angle is about the opposite oriented axis.
For , the reflection in a hyperplane formula givesIt fixes the plane pointwise and maps to , so . These actions also show that is an orthogonal matrix. In contrast, the second column of has squared length , so is not orthogonal and cannot represent either of these Euclidean motions.
A diagonalizable matrix must have a basis of eigenvectors over the field in question. For , a direct determinant computation gives . Its eigenvalues are , where . Only one is real, with one-dimensional eigenspace, so is not diagonalizable over . Over the three eigenvalues are distinct, and the vectors for give an eigenbasis. The upper triangular matrix has only eigenvalue , of algebraic multiplicity , but its eigenspace has dimension over either field. Hence is not diagonalizable over either field. For , the two real plane vectors displayed above, together with , form an eigenbasis, with eigenvalues . They remain independent over . Therefore
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