Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/ia/paper-1/2c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 1 2C Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A counterclockwise planar rotation matrix has the formTo recover this form from preservation of the Euclidean norm, let be the columns of . Applying the norm condition to the two coordinate unit vectors gives . Applying it to their sum givesso . The columns are an orthonormal basis, and : is an orthogonal matrix.
Write . There are two perpendicular unit vectors available for , namely . The first gives determinant , the second . The positive determinant hypothesis selects the first. A norm-preserving planar map with positive determinant is a rotation.
For the commutation condition, writeDirect matrix multiplication givesEquality forces and , so, with and ,If , take and . Otherwise set and choose , . ThenThis describes the centralizer of a planar quarter-turn. Its nonzero elements act as a rotation followed by a uniform scaling, just as multiplication by a nonzero complex number does.
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