Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/ib/paper-4/1e/solution

A quadratic form on a finite-dimensional real vector space is a function for some symmetric bilinear form . A positive-definite quadratic form satisfies for every .
Completing squares gives
Set , , . The corresponding ordered basis in the original coordinates is
and the diagonal form is . All diagonal coefficients are positive, so the form is positive definite.

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