Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/prelims/mathematics-i/2/b/ii/solution

Put . Every two-dimensional vector subspace containing is for some . There are choices for in . Within any one such , exactly choices of yield that same : each forms a linearly independent pair with , and that pair is a basis of .
These sets of choices partition , because determines uniquely. Thus the number is
Equivalently these vector subspaces correspond to the one-dimensional vector subspaces of the quotient vector space . For there are none and the formula gives zero.

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