Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/ii/paper-1/9g/solution

For , let be the binary matrix whose columns are all distinct nonzero vectors of . The binary Hamming code is . Its parity-check matrix has rank since its columns include the standard basis. Hence is linear of length and dimension .
No word of weight one or two lies in , since columns are nonzero and distinct; three columns sum to zero, so the minimum distance of a code is exactly three. The syndrome of a single-bit error is its column of , uniquely identifying the erroneous position. The possible syndromes correspond to no error or exactly one of single-bit errors. Alternatively, every radius-one Hamming ball has words and
Disjoint balls therefore cover the whole word space. This proves linearity, one-error correction and perfection. For , the parameters are , giving the 16 messages needed below.

New to topics? Read the docs here!