Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014/prelims/mathematics-i/3/b/solution

Solve for a general right-hand side . Subtracting the fourth equation from the second gives . The first and fourth then give
Substitution into the third equation reduces the remaining condition to
If , every right-hand side therefore has a unique solution, and collecting its four coefficients yields the matrix inverse
For , the nonzero vector lies in the kernel of a linear map represented by , so is singular. Hence is invertible exactly when . The same calculation gives ; the formula above can also be checked by multiplying its numerator by to obtain .

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